Of the Progress of the Mixture of Liquids, etc. 3 1 9 



propose to speak before this illustrious Assembly sim- 

 ply of experiments that I have performed. 



Having procured a cylindrical vessel of clear white 

 glass i inch 8 lines in diameter, and 8 inches high, 

 provided with a scale divided from the bottom upwards 

 into inches and lines, I put it on a firm table in the 

 middle of a cellar, where the temperature, which 

 seemed to be tolerably constant, was 64 degrees of Fah- 

 renheit's scale. 



I then poured into this vessel, with due precautions, 

 a layer of a saturated aqueous solution of muriate 

 of soda, 3 inches in thickness, and on to this a layer 

 of the same thickness of distilled water. This opera- 

 tion was performed in such a way that the two liquids 

 lay one upon the other without being mixed, and when 

 everything was at rest I let a large drop of the essential 

 oil of cloves fall into the vessel. This oil being spe- 

 cifically heavier than water, and lighter than the solution 

 of muriate of soda on which the water rested, the drop 

 descended through the layer of water ; when, however, 

 it reached the neighbourhood of the surface of the saline 

 solution it remained there, forming a little spherical 

 ball, which maintained its position at rest, as though it 

 were suspended, near the axis of the vessel. 



I then poured, with proper precautions, a layer of 

 olive oil four lines in thickness on to the surface of the 

 water, to prevent the contact -of the air with the liquid, 

 and having observed, by means of the scale attached to 

 the vessel, and noted down in a register, the height at 

 which the little ball was suspended, I withdrew, and, 

 locking the door, I left the apparatus to itself for 

 twenty-four hours. 



In a preliminary experiment, made to determine in 



