of Water to each other. 297 



mediately upon the mercury. The particles of this 

 liquid appear to have very little adhesion to each other; 

 for which reason I imagined that the kind of film that 

 would be formed at its surface must have very little 

 force. The results of my experiment fully confirmed 

 this conjecture. 



The very smallest spherules of mercury which I let 

 fall through this liquid seldom failed to mix immediately 

 with the mass of mercury on arriving at its surface, 

 where they entirely disappeared ; and I have never suc- 

 ceeded in causing either a spherule of mercury, or the 

 smallest metallic particle, or any other body of greater 

 specific gravity than ether, to swim upon its surface. 



The results of the experiment were not perceptibly 

 different when alcohol was substituted in the place of 

 ether. 



It is known that ether evaporates very rapidly. Is 

 not this another proof that the particles of this liquid 

 adhere to each other with much less force than those of 

 water ? But the following experiment proves this fact 

 in a decisive manner. 



Experiment No. 7. Having half filled a small cylin- 

 drical glass with mercury, I placed on the mercury a 

 stratum of ether four lines in thickness, and blew upon 

 the ether with a pair of common bellows. 



In less than one minute the ether. had disappeared. 



The same experiment being made with water, no sen- 

 sible quantity of this fluid had disappeared in one min- 

 ute. 



The objects which are before our eyes from the earli- 

 est periods of our lives seldom employ our meditation, 

 and not often our attention. We see, without sur- 

 prise, immense masses of dust raised by the winds and 



