WITHDRAWN PROM THE ACTION OF GRAVITY. 635 



by approximating the figure more to the limit of stabiUty, the 

 operations would require still less trouble ; the distance in 

 question is only 108 milliras., so that the relation between the 

 length and the diameter of the liquid cylinder which would ex- 

 tend between the two discs, would be equal to 3*6. 



We shall now detail the results obtained by the employment 

 of this system. In the first place, the operations were much 

 more easily performed*. In the second place, the figure still 

 had a tendency to deformity before it had been rendered per- 

 fectly cylindrical ; but this tendency always exhibited itself 

 unsymmetrically, as in the vertical figures ; from which cii'cum- 

 stance alone we might conclude that the unsymmetrical nature 

 of the phaenomenon is not occasioned by a difference between 

 the densities of the two liquids. In the third place, by a little 

 management, I have pursued the experiment further, and suc- 

 ceeded in forming an exact cylinder f. This lasted for a moment; 

 it then began to be narrowed at one part of its length, becoming 

 dilated at the other, like the vertical figures ; and the phaeno- 

 menon of disunion was completed in the same manner, giving 

 rise ultimately to two masses of different volumes. 



I repeated the experiment several times, and always with the 

 same results, except that the separation occurred sometimes on 

 one, sometimes on the other side of the middle of the length of 

 the figure. However, although the phaenomenon is produced 

 in an unsymmetrical manner with regard to the middle of the 

 length of the figure, whether horizontal or vertical, on the con- 

 trary there is always symmetry w ith regard to the axis ; in other 



* The two discs in this solid system being placed at an invariable distance 

 from each other, it is necessary, in making a mass of oil, the volume of which 

 is net too great, adhere to them, to employ an extra piece consisting of a 

 ring of iron wire of the same diameter as the discs, supported by a straight 

 wire of the same metal, the free extremity of which is held in the hand : by 

 means of this ring, the mass which has been previously attached to one of the 

 discs is drawn out until it is equally attached to the other ; the ring is then 

 removed. The latter removes a small portion of the mass at the same time ; 

 but on leaving the vessel, it leaves this portion in the alcoholic liquid ; it is 

 then removed by means of the syringe. 



t To effect this, the following proceeding must be adopted for the removal 

 of the excess of oil. The operation is at first carried on with a suitable rapidity, 

 until the figure begins to alter in form ; the end of the point of the syringe is 

 then drawn gently along the upper part of the mass, proceeding from the 

 thickest to the other portion. This slight action is sufficient to move a minute 



Quantity of oil towards the latter, and thus to re-establish the symmetry of the 

 gure ; a new absorption is then made, the figure again regulated, and these 

 proceedings are continued until the exactly cylindrical form is attained. 



