872 RELATIVE ATTRACTIONS OF 
and bursting forth at its surface,—an effect caused 
by an equilibrium of force being established in 
such instance between the tendency of the liquid 
to assume the elastic state, and the tendency of - 
the atmosphere to resist that change, it certainly 
would be equally plausible to assert, that this 
equilibrium takes place at a low temperature, in 
a vessel exhausted of air, in consequence of the 
removal of innumerable small particles through 
which those of vapour must otherwise have filter- 
ed, and in order to facilitate this escape past such 
immovables at the ordinary pressure, the repul- 
sive force of additional heat is indispensable ; 
as it would be to assert, that ebullition takes 
place, in a vessel exhausted of air, with so little 
assistance from the repulsive agency of heat, in 
consequence of the removal of a weight which, 
in ordinary instances, presses upon the surface 
of the liquid whose tendency in a free state is to 
become aeriform. 
I cannot but concur in the view held by- Dr. 
Faraday, (Phil. Trans. 1826) that a limit exists 
to the production of vapour from bodies ; nor 
does it appear needful to assign to any other 
agency than the attraction of cohesion the cause 
of such limit. And, so far as the experiments 
