TIIE NOBLE SCIENCE. 225 



implicitly to Mr. Smith's positive assertion, that it falls, 

 will be found in the work to which I have alluded ; and 

 as every one who condescends to read this, may not be 

 fortified with such a volume at his elbow, I will make 

 brief extracts of that which bears immediately upon the 

 point. 



Dr. Dufay '' supposed, that, if the dew ascended, it 

 must wet a body placed low down, sooner than one 

 placed in a higher situation ; and if a number of bodies 

 were placed in this manner, the lowermost would be 

 wetted first ; and the rest, in like manner, up to the 

 top." No very unnatural supposition this, for any 

 Frenchman or Englishman to have made ; but let us 

 see how sets the Doctor about the work of proving his 

 hypothesis. He probably knew little enough of a five- 

 barred gate ; at all events, it did not occur to him ; per- 

 haps he might not have satisfied himself with it if it 

 had ; so, " to determine this, he placed two ladders 

 against one another, meeting at their tops, spreading 

 wide asunder at the bottom, and so tall as to reach 

 thirty-two feet high. To the several steps of these he 

 fastened large squares of glass, like the panes of win- 

 dows, placing them in such a manner that they should 

 not overshade one another. On the trial, it appeared 

 exactly as Dr. Dufay had apprehended. The lowest 

 surface of the lowest piece of glass was first wetted ; 

 then the upper, then the lower surface of the pane next 

 above it, and so on till all the pieces were wetted to the 

 top. Hence it appeared plain to him, that the dew 



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