124 



John Adie, Esq., on the Cause of Change 



place ; but, from the method in which these experiments 

 have been conducted, I am not at present in a condition to 

 assign a time ; moreover, it is evident that this period will 

 be much modified by circumstances. The results above 

 stated form the following Table : — 



From inspection of the Table, no very remarkable differ- 

 ence is observable in the rising of these four instruments. 

 No. 4 appears to have risen less during the first period, but 

 goes along with the others afterwards. The effect of ex- 

 posure to the temperature of boiling water shews that, under 

 high temperature, the change goes on much faster than at 

 the ordinary temperature of the air ; from the Table it will 

 be observed, that about twice the amount of change was 

 caused by the boiling of the thermometers for a week, than 

 had taken place between the first and second observations, 

 a period of four months. 



It does not appear that the boiling of the thermometer 

 tubes for eight days, previous to their being filled with mer- 

 cury, had produced any change on the form of the bulbs ; we 

 should at least infer this from the change in their freezing 

 points keeping pace so nearly with those which had not been 

 boiled. 



