Relations of Electricity with bodies in the sphei'oidal state. 441 



183. When the quantity of liquid has been greatly reduced 

 by evaporation, so that there no longer remains more than a 

 small drop lodged in the lower part of the eye and suspended 

 above the capsule, the fluid projects it mechanically toward 

 the sides, and it is seen to re-descend immediately along the 

 concavity of the vase to resume its first position on the wire. 



184. But if the discharge is excited through the capsule 

 cooled to about 200° C, it acts in quite a different manner. 

 The cause which keeps the distilled water in the spheroidal 

 state having become very weak, the drop passes suddenly to 

 the state of a moistening liquid and disappears entirely, or at 

 least in great part, with all the characters of a brisk evapori- 

 zation. 



185. The same experiments were repeated on water ren- 

 dered conducting by the addition of a little nitric acid. If the 

 temperature of the capsule is much raised (without however 

 attaining to a dull red), the spark is emitted through the drop 

 which is not sensibly affected by it, either in its state of gyra- 

 tion or of repose, or in its limpid or mamelonnated, ellipsoidal 

 or stellate appearance. 



186. On the contrary, if the heating is near the minimum 

 necessary to the spheroidal state, the electricity destroys that 

 state, and the drop is converted into gas diffusing acid vapours. 



187. The second case to be examined was that of dynamic 

 electricity. I employed a Grove's battery of five large pairs 

 (139.), moderately excited and provided with platina rheo- 

 phores. 



188. With distilled water, we find that in the spheroidal 

 state, as in the cold, there is no decomposition. 



189. If we substitute acidulated water, this is electrolyzed 

 when the two polar wires enter the drop without touching the 

 capsule. The bubbles of gas, being produced at a great heat, 

 are more dilated than at the ordinary temperature, but their 

 mass remains probably the same. 



190. When either one of the electrodes is put in contact 

 with the vessel and the other is immersed in the drop, there 

 is no decomposition, because the current does not pass*. A 



* Since the compilation of these notes, I have found that M. Poggen- 

 dorffmade some similar experiments in 1841. He showed that no cur- 

 rent is established when a lamina of zinc is immersed in spheroidalized 

 sulphuric acid, or a lamina of amalgamated zinc and a platina wire heated 

 red-hot, is plunged simultaneously into cold acidulated water. That these 

 results might not be attributed to unipolar phaenomena, that skilful experi- 

 menter reproduced them with a Saxton's magneto-electric machine pro- 

 vided with an inversor; the poles of the magnet were connected with pla- 

 tina wires, one of which was heated to redness by a lamp (Pogg. Ann. der 

 Physik und Chemie, vol. lii. p. 539). MM. Peltier, De Kramer and Belli, 

 subsequently observed the same fact (Boutigny, ouvr. cite, p. 37). 

 Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 33. No. 224. Dec. 1848. 2 G 



