ON THE FORM OF A FREE LIQUID MASS. 17 
actions of gravity and centrifugal force, means of satisfying the 
equilibrium of that singular form. 
If however we could, by some means, withdraw from the ac- 
tion of gravity one of the liquid masses upon which we have to 
operate, at the same time leaving it free to be acted upon by 
other forces which might tend to modify its form, and if our 
process allowed of giving to this mass sufficiently large dimen- 
sions, would it not be very curious to see it take a determinate 
figure, and to see this figure vary in a thousand ways with the 
forces on which it depends? Now I have succeeded, by an ex- 
tremely simple means, in submitting to the above conditions a 
considerable liquid mass. 
2. Fat oils are, it is known, less dense than water and more 
dense than alcohol. Accordingly we may make a mixture of 
water and alcohol having a density precisely equal to that of a 
given oil—of olive oil, for example. Now ifany quantity of olive 
oil is introduced into the mixture thus formed, it is evident that 
the action of gravity upon this mass of oil will be completely 
annihilated ; for, in virtue of the equality of density, the oil will 
only hold the place of an equal mass of the ambient liquid. On 
the other hand the fat oils do not mix with a liquor composed of 
alcohol and water. The mass of oil must therefore remain sus- 
pended and isolated in the midst of the surrounding liquid, and 
it will be perfectly free to take the exterior form which the forces 
that may act upon it will give to it. 
This being supposed, if the molecular attractions of the oil for 
itself, those of the alcoholic mixture for itself, and those of this 
mixture for the oil were identical, there would be no reason that 
the mass of oil left in the midst of the ambient liquid should take 
spontaneously one form more than another, since, relatively to all 
the forces acting upon it, it would be exactly in the same position 
as an equal mass of alcoholic mixture whose place it would occupy. 
But it is evident that this identity between the different attractive 
forces does not exist, and that the attraction of the oil for itself 
greatly exceeds the two others. The mass of oil therefore ought 
to obey this excess of its own attractive forces, 
We thus come to this conclusion, that our mass of oil may be 
perfectly assimilated to a liquid mass without weight, suspended 
freely in space, and submitted to its own proper molecular attrac- 
tions. Now it is clear that such a mass must take the spherical 
form. 
VOL. IV, PART XIII, Cc 
