WITHDRAWN FROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY. 307 
86. The properties of those liquid figures, one dimension of which is con- 
siderable with regard to the two others, and particularly of cylinders, furnishes 
then the complete explanation of the constitution of liquid veins projected 
from circular orifices, and accounts for all the details and all the laws of the 
phenomenon, at least so long as the modifications produced in it by extraneous 
causes, 2. ¢., by the vibratory movements transmitted to the liquid, are excluded. 
As regards the mode of action of these vibratory movements, it is evident 
that the properties of the liquid cylinders cannot make us acquainted with 
them. These movements constitute a totally different cause from the con- 
figuring forces, consequently one which is foreign to the general object of our 
treatise ; however, to avoid leaving a deficiency in the theory, we will also 
examine, relying upon other considerations, the manner in which the vibratory 
movements act upon the vein, and we shall thus arrive at the complete ex- 
planation of the modifications which result from it, and the constitution of the 
latter ; but we shall reserve this subject for the following series. 
The influence exerted by the vibratory movements communicated to the 
liquid led Savart to regard the constitution of the vein as being itself the 
result of certain vibratory movements inherent in the phenomenon of the flow. 
From this assumption, Savart has endeavored to explain how the kind of dis~ 
turbance occasioned in the mass of the liquid by the emission of the latter 
might in reality give rise to vibration, and he has shown that the existence of 
the latter would entail the alternate formation of dilatations and constrictions 
in the vein. It has been shown, in the exposition of our theory, that the con~ 
stitution of the vein is explained in a necessary manner by facts, quite inde- 
pendently of all hypothesis. We may then, | think, dispense with a detailed 
discussion of the ingenious ideas which we have mentioned, ideas for the com- 
plete comprehension of which we must refer to Savart’s memoir itself. We 
shall merely remark, that it is difficult to admit the kind of disturbance sup- 
posed by Savart to occur, except during the first moments after the orifice is. 
opened; moreover, that it is not very evident how the vibrations in question,, 
after having traced upon the surface of the vein a nascent division, would pro~ 
duce the further development of the latter, so as to make it pass gradually,, 
during its descent, to the state of an isolated mass; lastly, that to remove 
these difficulties, we should again be obliged to have recourse to additional 
hypotheses, to arrive at the laws governing the length of the continuous por-. 
tion, and those to which the numbers of vibrations corresponding to the sounds. 
produced by the shock of the disturbed portion are subject. However, it is 
by borrowing one of Savart’s ideas, which becomes applicable when, from. 
some external cause, vibrations are really excited in the liquid, that we find. 
the elements requisite for entering upon the latter part of the theory. 
87. In the next series, after having concluded what relates to the vein, we: 
shall return to the liquid masses free from gravity; and we shall study the. 
other figures of revolution besides the sphere and the cylinder, as also those 
figures which do not belong to this class, for which the equation of equilibrium, 
may be interpreted in a rigorous manner. 
