Divisibility of Matter. 163 
mained cold at night, but pleasant by day until the 13th, since then 
mild. ‘Thermometer on the 25th at 62°. The rivers closed on the 
6th, but opened on the 24th—only 14 inches of snow in December, 
none in January, the absence of snow has preserved us from the se- 
vere cold of the middle and eastern states. 
Anr. XVI.—Divisibility of Matter; by E. Avams. 
Hanover, N. Hamp., Dec. 18th, 1834, 
TO PROFESSOR SILLIMAN, 
Dear Sir—Turre has been, as we well know, much labored 
discussion, and much waste of ink upon the subject of the divisibili- 
ty of matter. As the following has a bearing upon that point, and 
may be considered as a striking illustration of it; and as the result 
of my calculations was not a little surprising, as well as amusing to 
myself, and may be so to others; I send it to you, that you may, 
if you think fit, give it a place in your valuable Journal. 
Several years since, as I was setting by my fireside, I observed 
several of my family around a table, reading by the light of a single 
candle. The thought occurred—how great a portion of the light of 
that candle is used by those several persons reading? And then 
immediately, a second thought—for how many persons does that 
candle furnish light sufficient to enable them to read, provided it 
could be so distributed, that the whole should be used for that pur- 
pose without any loss? The candle was rather a large one, and- 
gave a very clear, bright light. I found on trial, that I could read 
very well with my book at the distance of three feet from the can- 
dle, and with my eyes nine inches from the book. The candle then 
would illuminate the concave surface of a sphere of three feet radius 
sufficiently for the purpose of reading. By measuring, I found that 
the book I made use of contained on an average twenty letters to an 
inch, and ten lines to an inch. But as the spaces between the lines 
were broader than the lines themselves, instead of ten, I supposed 
twenty lines to an inch, and, consequently, that four hundred letters 
would be contained in a square inch. A concave sphere then of six 
feet diameter would contain six. million five hundred and fourteen 
thousand and four hundred letters. This number of letters the can- 
dle would illuminate, so that each would be distinctly visible to an 
