234 On the Effect of Quantity of Matter im 
the last position of the bar and the porragens remain un- 
disturbed in their position until] morning. The arrangement 
of the boxes in which the bars are contained and the mechan- 
ism of the movements appear to me very well planne 
America, has not been applied according to its inseio io 
and by its author. (Signed,) F. W. Besse 
Art. II].—On the Effect of Quantity of Matter in Modify- 
ing ths Force of Chemical Attraction; by Exrsna Mitcu- 
ELL, Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology, in 
the University of North Carolina. 
In my present communication to the Journal, I do not pro- 
ose to bring forward any new fact or argument. Wit 
reference to the subject of which it treats, both have already 
been sufficiently multiplied. My object is merely to call the 
attention of chemists, to some facts that appear to have been 
unacconntably neglected, and to correct mistakes respecting 
rs, which have found their way into books of the greatest 
authority. 
It is stated, in substance, in our. treatises of chemistry, that 
the force of chemical attraction is modified by the quantity 
of matter by which it is exerted, and in some of them, the 
opinion is advanced, that quantity of matter may in some 
com e for a weaker aflinit ty. But ibe ang wir 
all us in sats a way, and accom 
pans qualifications and expressions of doubt fis heathen: 
that it appears like a reluctant admission of a commecete. 
truth rather than a free and willing enunciation of a law 
nature. The following extract from one of the best of ani 
elementary books, may serve for illustration. 
Though this mode of determining the relative forces of 
affinity, cannot be admitted, it is possible that quantity of 
matter, may some how oro ther, compensate for a weaker af- 
fei ond Berthollet attempts to prove it by auperinent 
On boiling the sulphate of baryta, with an equal weight of 
pure potash, the alkali is found to have deprived the baryta. 
