by means of spirit of nitre combine d with snow, lie 

 saw, with surprize, the quicksilver in the other thermo- 

 rneter descend even to 4/0 degrees : there the quick- 

 silver remained fixed in the open air, for the space of n 

 quarter ot an hour, and did not hegin to rise, till it 

 carried into a warm room. He repeated the same 

 experiment, first with the sair.e, and then with another 

 tl'ermometer, with the same success. But as Mr, 

 Braim had not broken, the glasses, he could only at that 

 time form a conjecture, On the I 7th he produced 

 again coid equal to that of the 14th, and communicated 

 his discovery at a meeting of the Academy. On th.e 

 55th of December in the morning, between nine and 

 tea, De Lisie's thermometer was at the H/9th degree 

 of cold, and Mr. Braun, as well as Professor ^Epiiius, 

 repeated this experiment. As soon as the former ob- 

 served the quicksilver immovcable in the thermometer 

 he broke the glass, and found the quicksilver frozen, 

 but not entirely : "Mr. JLpinus 1 thermometer fell \vith 

 extreme rapidity, almost to the 500th degree, and in 

 breaking the glass from below, ke found the quick- 

 silver contained in it absolutely frozen. m Both the 

 gentlemen found that the quicksilver, thus rendered 

 solid, bore hammering and extension, like other metals 7 

 but being exposed to the open air, it recovered it* 

 former fluidity in a little time. 



Mr. ^Epinus went farther to examine the quicksilver 

 when it was made solid. He poured quicksilver into a 

 glass tube, as thick as one's finger, closed at the bottom, 

 but open at top. 



The quicksilver in this cylinder, winch was about one 

 inch and a half long, froze in three quarters of amiuute, 

 and became solid, perfectly resembling other metals. 

 Mean time it continually contracted ; its surface, which 

 \vas at first pretty high t sunk very low, and the cylinder 

 of frozen quicksilver sunk to the bottom of the fluid 

 quicksilver. We know the contrary happens to water 

 frozen, and other fluids, which extend as tlfey become 

 solid, and their ice swims in the fluid matter, of whicii 

 they were produced. 



