liv Mr. Pickering’s Eulogy on 
floating on the water near the side of the vessel, will suddenly be 
drawn into contact with it; and two bodies lying on the surface, 
upon being brought towards each other, will suddenly rush together. 
In the same way, too, we see the rain forming itself into pellucid 
drops, and hanging from the under surfaces of bodies, or standing in 
imperfect globules on their upper surfaces ; and the same principle 
manifests itself in the form of 
“the dew-drops, which the sun 
Impearls on every leaf and every flower ; 
and in 
‘“‘the gentle tear let fall 
From crystal sluce.” * 
In short, the phenomena of capillary attraction are so constantly 
manifesting themselves, and under such various circumstances, that 
they present to the philosophical observer questions of singular 
interest and extraordinary difficulty. These questions are most 
elaborately and profoundly investigated by La Place and his com- 
mentator. 
Among other investigations of Dr. Bowditch in relation to this 
subject, I ought not to omit the fact, that he has most thoroughly 
examined and analyzed the very celebrated work of the present 
day called the Wew Theory of Capillary Attraction, by the eminent 
French mathematician, M. Poisson; and has shown, by numerous 
examples from M. Poisson’s work, that, profound and acute as that 
author is, he has, under a different form of notation and with vast 
labor, only arrived at results which are either identical with those 
before obtained by La Place under his own form of notation, or 
which may be easily obtained from them; and that the supposed 
* Milton, Parad. Lost. 
