A 



JOURNAL. 



OF 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS. 



SEPTEMBER, IS07. 



ARTICLE I. 



Remarks on some Difficulties which oceur in the Investigation 

 of the Capillary Actions of Fluids, 



To Mr. NICHOLSON. 

 SIR, 



JL HE capillary actions of liquids have lately been mi- Capillary ac- 

 imtely investigated, both in this country and in France, and poryet corn- 

 several essays on the subje6t have been inserted in your pletely investi- 

 Journal: but there appears to me to be still some deficiency ^^^^ ' 

 in all the modes of demonstration which have been employ- 

 ed. Mr. Laplace's first method leads to erroneous conclu- Laplace defec* 

 sions, respecting the angle of contact of a solid and a fluid : *^^®* 

 his second is less exceptionable, but it is still defective in 

 omitting the consideration of the force of repulsion ; for it 

 cannot be denied, that this force is equally indispensable p f i- 

 with that of cohesion to the existence of all material bodies sion necessary 

 in the state of solids or of hquids; and every theory of the tobeconsid^- 

 mutual actions of the particles of such bodies, which does ! 



not comprehend the consideration of both these forces, must 

 necessarily be imperfect. Dr. T. Young's reasoning, al- Dr. T. Young, 

 though built on more probable suppositions respecting the 

 mutual actions of the particles, does not seem to be mathe- 

 VoL. XVIII— Sept. 1807» B matically 



