AND THE ATMOSPHERE. 215 



densities^ are equal, \vhether they consist of 

 one cubic inch, or of the whole nucleus of the 

 earth, were put in opposite scales ; so long 

 as they were of equal magnitude, and of equal 

 densities, they would subsist in a state of equi- 

 librium, or of balance. In like manner, it is by 

 the pressure of water, equally in every direction, 

 that it produces no pressure in any ^particular 

 direction. It appears that the pressure produced 

 on bodies immersed in fluids, at different depths, 

 is the same; as well as the pressure of fluids, 

 of equal densities, upon each other ; it must 

 follow, then, that the fundamental proposition 

 in hydrostatics, which affirms, that the weight 

 of fluids is in proportion to their base, and per- 

 pendicular height, is an erroneous one. It 

 ought, on the contrary, to be affirmed, that the 

 pressure of water in water, as well as of all 

 fluids of the same degree of density, when they 

 are immersed together, instead of pressing un- 

 equally downwards, press equally sideways and 

 upwards. 



The different experiments which are ad- 

 vanced for the purpose of showing the weight 

 of water in water, are nothing more than so 

 many false facts, which only prove the density 

 of water with relation to the rarity of air ; or 

 the comparative gravity of the one, with respect 

 to the levity of the other. " If a stopped phial 

 be suspended from an arm of a balance, in a 



