OF TWO DIFFERENT LIQUIDS. 33 



that, with one and the same liquid, water, for ex- 

 ample, the substance of the solid body has no in- 

 fluence on the height to which the liquid rises on 

 it. On slices of box- wood, clay-slate, or glass, the 

 rise of the liquid above the surface of the water is 

 the same exactly as in the case of a plate of brass. 

 (HAGEN.) In the case of other liquids, the par- 

 ticles of which are entirely homogeneous, the same 

 law may be assumed in theory ; but with such 

 liquids as contain foreign bodies in solution, a 

 change in the capillary attraction must be produced 

 by the presence of these bodies, because by them 

 the cohesion of the liquid is altered ; and, perhaps, 

 still more because the liquid ceases to be homoge- 

 neous, when the attracting wall has a stronger affi- 

 nity for the particles of the dissolved body than for 

 those of the solvent. 



From what has been stated, it appears, that the 

 mixture of two liquids is the result of a chemical 

 attraction ; for how otherwise could chemical com- 

 pounds, such as the solution of a salt in water, 

 be decomposed, or a chemical attraction be over- 

 come, by its means ? 



Two liquids of different chemical properties, Laws of 

 which are rniscible together, and which, therefore, S^o liquids, 

 have a chemical attraction for each other, mix 

 readily at all points where they come in contact. 

 By motion, shaking, &c., the number of points of 

 contact within a given time is increased, and the 

 formation of a uniform mixture is thus accelerated. 



D 



