Lesson III. ] 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 



11 



of matter must be possessed of a finite 



ade, we should rather say that it is 



. though too small to be seen even 



when maguilicd by the most powerful 



microscope. 



26. T. Give me some examples of the 



ILITY of matter? 



/'. One of the best examples of extreme 

 divisibility of matter is musk, which will 

 continue to diffuse its odour year after 

 year without any perceptible loss of weight 

 It is stated* that "a clean cork, which 

 stopped a phial in which there was musk, 

 which it seemed never to have touched, in 

 melled of musk more than twenty 

 years after;" and Fee says that one part of 

 musk will communicate its odour to 3,000 

 parts of inodorous powder. It is very 

 evident that some particles of the musk 

 must have been diffused, otherwise the 

 odour would not have been discovered by 

 the sense of smelling; touch and vision 

 could not assist in the perception of its 

 existence. Again : the silk, spun by the 

 silk-worm, is about the 500th part of an 

 inch thick; but a spider's line is, perhaps, 

 six times 6ner, or only the 3,000th part of 

 an inch in diameter ; insomuch that a 

 single pound of this attenuated substance 

 >>c sufficient to encompass our globe. 

 Another remarkable instance of the di- 

 ly of matter is seen in the dyeing of 

 ilk with cochineal, where a pound of silk, 

 containing eight score threads to the ounce, 

 each thread seventy-two yards long, and 

 the whole reaching about 104 miles, when 

 dyed with scarlet doet^iot receive above a 

 weight ; so that a drachm 

 olouring mattrr of the cocli 

 actually extended through more than 100 

 tliis minute quan- 

 to give an intense colour 

 to the silk with which it is combined. I h< 

 also affords us an excel- 

 lent example of th- divisibility of in 



the iron -ochre, which are 

 irshes. Each animalcule 

 is only about -nrtao^ 1 of an inch in diame- 

 ter ; and therefore a cubic line would con- 

 '00 million* of them, or nearly two 

 million million t in a cul 



[Tho pupil ihould b required to glv* other 

 illuttration* of the divisibility of matter, luch 

 M gold in ftildinr. or wh.n bton out ; plat, 



Alston'* LttlfTt o*Mal*riaM*tca t vol. li. p. S. 



num, when formed into wire; toap bubble*, 

 a; ing t of infects, puff-ball fungut, &c.] 



/'. What you have stated seems 

 almost incredible without some further ex- 

 planation ; will you therefore demonstrate 

 to me how matter is capable of division? 



T 9 hi i A* Z vn, st 



Fig. 1. 



P. Draw a line, A, B, and parallel to 

 that another, C, D ; then draw E F per- 

 pendicular to C, D, and between the two. 

 Let E F represent the particle of matter to 

 be divided ; then draw lines from A to g, 

 h, i. /.-. I, tn, n, D, and the line E F will be 

 divided into eight parts. If the line, C, 

 D, be lengthened or extended, and the 

 lines drawn from A increased in number, 

 then the line E F, which represents the 

 particle of matter, will be divided into a 

 greater number of parts of less magnitude. 



28. T. Although you have explained 

 to me in a very satisfactory manner the 

 division of matter by means of a diagram, 

 I wish to have a familiar instance. Can 

 you furnish one ? 



P. Yes; when large rocks are divided 



from the mass, for the purposes of building, 



Her portions are again divided to 



ids, and then subdivided by 



ds of wagv :: 'l tnp y f orra 



dust, the particles of which arc frequently 



so exceeding! we cannot readily 



distinguish them without the aid of a mag- 



20. T. Give me an example to prove 

 th:it the divisibility of matter passes tho 

 limits of sensual }> 



/'. Cinnabar, which is composed of sul- 

 phur and mercury, may be separated into 

 these constituents ; but we cannot di-tin- 

 '!< particles of sulphur from those 

 under the microscope. 



/.Do you consider that the di- 

 .ty of matter is wholly unlimited f 

 P. No; to adopt such an assu 

 he to ndmit th.it the ni*c 

 ultimat. s null ; while 



it is evident, that if the ultimate particle 



