134 anecdotes. Aug. r^ 



regularly annealed, or saturated with latent heat,, 

 will not fly or break, as the former, upon losing a. 

 part of its small tail. 



Another phenomenon proves that these drops are 

 deprived of latent heat, or any gas or air that is in 

 their composition ; for every one of these drops con- 

 tain in the body of the glafs, small blebs or vacui- 

 ties : Now if those blebs or vacuities contained any 

 of the above matter, it must evidently expand upon 

 putting them into a fire, and consequently would cause 

 the drops to fly into pieces ; but this not being the 

 case, fhovvs, these blebs are perfect vacuums that are 

 deprived of all aeriform matter. 



How it comes about that these drops fhould break,. 

 because they are deprived of latent heat, is not so 

 easy to judge. It is my opinion that upon breaking 

 or depriving them of a part of their long tail, a tre- 

 mulous motion is communicated to the rest of the 

 glafs, which being of so hard, consequently so brittle a 

 nature, it immediately flies, and breaics into the pecu- 

 liar powder, with some degree of noise aid violence. 



I must here remark that all substances are exceed- 

 ingly brittle when deprived of latent heat, as may be 

 seen in the tempering of metals ; and, in particular, 

 steel, which may be made to bend and twist all ways, 

 and upon being deprived of its latent heat will then 

 be more brittle than glafs itself. Gh.smicus. 



ANECDOTE OF WILLIAM III. 

 Lord Molesworth, who had been ambafsador art 

 the court of Copenhagen, publifhed, at the end of the 



