14 EXPLANATIONS. 



tain recent experiments, by which it has been 

 remarkably illustrated. Here it is peculiarly im- 

 portant to bear in mind, that the phenomena of 

 nature are, if I may so speak, indifferent to the 

 scale on which they act. The dew-drop is, in 

 physics, the picture of a world. Remembering 

 this, we are prepared, in some measure, to hear of 

 a Belgian professor imitating the supposed for- 

 mation and arrangement of a solar system, in 

 some of its most essential particulars, on the table 

 of a lecture-room ! The experiments were first 

 conducted by Professor Plateau of Ghent, and 

 afterwards repeated by our own Dr. Faraday. 



The following abstract of Professor Plateau's 

 experiments is also presented in the fifth edition 

 of the Vestiges. Its being repeated here is, that 

 it may meet the eyes of many who are not likely 

 to see any edition of that work besides those 

 from which it is absent : 



Placing a mixture of water and alcohol in a 

 glass box, and therein a small quantity of olive 

 oil, of density precisely equal to the mixture, we 

 have in the latter a liquid mass relieved from the 

 operation of gravity, and free to take the exterior 

 form given by the forces which may act upon 



