188 PROCESS OF GASSIFICATION. 



interior sides of the vessel, which, being most 

 exposed, cooled the first; this accumulation 

 of dew became more abundant, as the thermo- 

 meter descended to 45. On exposing the bot- 

 tle, during the day, to the solar rays, the water 

 which had been separated during the night 

 from the air, became again converted into a 

 gaseous and vaporific form. These processes 

 of gassification of water, and liquefaction of 

 air, are always found to vary in a considerable 

 degree, by the influence of climates, of seasons, 

 of winds, and of weather, of days, and of 

 nights. It, nevertheless, appears that the eva- 

 poration from ice, by the agency of the solar 

 rays, at a temperature considerably below 32*. 

 does not differ materially from that of water, at 

 the same temperature. 



However various the means may be, by 

 which the process of gassification is effect- 

 ed, we have evidence of the most decisive 

 kind, that in open space, it is greatly as- 

 sisted, if not altogether accomplished, by the 

 agency of the solar rays ; not only when they 

 issue from different bodies, into which they had 

 entered ; or, as they impinge on bodies whence 

 they are reflected ; and that it is to their power, 

 in particular, that the process of evaporation, 

 and of gassification, which is so extensively 

 carried from the surface of the globe, is prin- 

 cipally to be referred; by which, water, and 



