Inquiries into the Principles of Liquid Atraction. 89 
5th. Two floating bodies, both having a depression of the liquid, 
will, when near, approach each other, with the liquid descending 
between them. 
6th. Two floating bodies, one having an elevation and the other a 
depression of the liquid, will, when placed contiguous to each other, 
recede. 
Of the seat and properties of Liquid Attraction. 
Having noticed some of the laws and phenomena of liquid attrac- 
tion, it now remains to point out the seat and properties of this attrac- 
tion. It may, however, in the first place, be proper to take some 
notice of the opinions of philosophers on this subject. As far as my 
information extends, but little difference of opinion exists in relation 
to the attraction of the particles of liquids for each other ; but in rela- 
tion to the attraction which takes place between liquids and other 
bodies, some little difference of opinion exists on the subject, while 
_at the same time, some affirm, and others deny the existence of a 
repelling power. According to Enfield, Book I, Prop. 3d. Ex. 1, 
** the drop is spherical because, each particle exerts an equal power 
in every direction, drawing other particles towards it on every side, 
as far as its power extends.” Doct. Good, in his “ Book of Nature,” 
says, “that there being an equal tendency in every particle of homo- 
geneous bodies to press together, they must press equally towards 
one common centre®® “Hence, then, the cause of the globular figure 
of drope of quicksilver, drops of water, drops of rain, and drops of 
dew.” 
The doctrine of an equal attraction, or mutual cohesion between 
the particles of a liquid, without discriminating in the least, the situa- 
tion and circumstances of those particles, is, indeed, ancient ; and it 
appears to have been adopted as a self evident proposition, sufficiently 
obvious without proof; and we see that philosophers have, for more 
than a century, supported it with the constancy of an “ Aristeus,” 
amidst all the “Proteus” forms in which liquids have appeared. 
But has this doctrine of a mutual cohesion of liquid particles yet dis- 
closed to them, the true method of explaining the various phenomena 
of liquids ? 
Water is a liquid, the most abundant in nature, and when pure, 
perhaps a perfect one ; but its properties are very different from what 
its appearance would lead one to expect. Until lately, it was con- 
Vor. XVII.—No. 1. 12 
