~~ Chemistry. 101 
from which the sulphurous acid is let drop, and opposite to the 
hand, it is seen to boil rapidly, which ebullition ceases instantly as 
it falls into the red hot capsule, and its evaporation goes on with an 
incredible slowness and without any signs of ebullition. If the weath- 
er be damp, the acid becomes turbid, and finally loses its transparency, 
then solidifies, and upon examination the solid is found composed almost 
entirely of water. If the weather be dry, then no residue is left. 
The singular phenomenon, of boiling sulphurous acid becoming colder 
when thrown into a red hot capsule, is not peculiar to it, as boiling wa- 
ter will exhibit the same fact, falling from 212° to 206° Fanr. 
If we throw distilled water drop by drop into sulphurous acid in the 
spheroidal condition, it becomes frozen, even if the capsule be white hot ; 
or if we plunge for about a half a minute a small glass bulb containing 
about fifteen grains of water into sulphurous acid in the spheroidal con- 
dition,—withdraw it, and break it, and a small lump of ice will be found 
within. A still more striking way of making the experiment, is to 
place the capsule containing the sulphurous acid, at the bottom of a 
muffle in a furnace heated to whiteness, when if the weather be dry, 
the evaporation goes on slowly without any residue,—if the weather be 
moist, ice will remain behind. Again, if a brick be placed upon the 
plate of an air-pump, around it a layer of binoxide of lead to absorb 
the acid vapor, and upon that a piece of brick heated red hot, having 
a cavity that contains a small capsule, into which sulphurous acid is 
poured, and a vacuum be rapidly produced ; the sulphurous acid which 
ought, So to speak, to explode, does not boil, but evaporates slowly, 
just as in a white hot capsule, or as at the bottom of the muffle of the 
furnace ; and what is still more remarkable is, that on a damp day the 
little water that the air of the receiver contains, congeals in the sphe- 
roidal sulphurous acid: all other liquids behave in the same way in 
the vacuum. 
The vapors arising from the spheroidal liquids, have their tempera- 
ture much elevated ; and where water and an iron vessel is used, it is 
decomposed, furnishing hydrogen gas. 
Does the heat traverse the liquids in their spherical condition swith 
out combining, or is it reflected? This is important to determine, for 
up to the time of M. Bouricny’s experiments, it was pretty generally 
admitted that it did traverse them; but he has proved most clearly that 
the heat is reflected and not transmitted. A platinum capsule was made 
red hot, and by means of a support, a small glass bulb containing wa- 
ter was placed very near the bottom of the vessel; the radiated heat 
soon heated the vessel, and made the water boil ; it was now withdrawn, 
and water poured in, when it immediately assumed the spheroidal con- 
dition, and into it was plunged the small bulb before alluded to; but no 
