318 M. Dutrochefs New Researches 



demy of Sciences have clearly proved that Endosmose is not 

 owing to capillary attraction. My new observations tend to 

 demonstrate this fact, at the same time that they prove that 

 this action is really the fundamental action of life. 



It is known that hot liquids ascend less in capillary tubes 

 than the same liquids when cold. Thus hot water does not 

 ascend so high as cold water ; it is the same with alcohol, &c. 

 Hence it follows that increase of temperature diminishes the 

 force of capillary attraction ; but the experiments which I 

 have repeated a great number of times have shown me that 

 an increase of temperature augments, on the contrary, the 

 force of endosmose. 



It is therefore very evident that this does not at all depend 

 upon the capillary attractions : it is produced by a particular 

 state of electricity, as I have already announced ; and this 

 will be farther proved by the following experiments. 



I have described in my work the instrument which I have 

 called the Endosmometer. I made it with a small bladder, 

 having a glass tube fixed into it. I have altered this instru- 

 ment a little ; and it is now made in the following manner : — 



I prepared a tube of glass terminated at one end by a large 

 brim similar to the mouth of a trumpet. I closed this orifice 

 with a piece of bladder firmly fixed by means of a ligature. I 

 filled the cavity of the trumpet mouth with the liquid with 

 which I was to try the power of the endosmose, and I plunged 

 the widened part into distilled water. The tube remaining 

 empty, rose vertically above the water, and corresponded with 

 a graduated plate. If the liquid contained in the endosmo- 

 meter be of the kind to produce endosmose, it will soon rise 

 in the tube, and with a degree of quickness proportional to 

 the force of the endosmose. 



If the liquid in the endosmometer is not of the kind to pro- 

 duce endosmose, there will be no ascent of the liquid in the 

 tube ; and besides, if by additional fluid the latter rises in the 

 tube above the level of the water, it very soon falls ; it filters 

 through the bladder in virtue of its weight. I had attributed 

 this descent of the fluid to the circumstance, that this last 

 ought to have produced exosmose instead of endosmose. This 

 is true in certain cases, but it is not so in the case under con- 

 sideration. Thus, for example, when a weak solution of gum 



