SOLID PRODUCED FROM TWO LIQUIDS. 93 



see, I have no doubt, a certain amount of 

 change. Look, they are already becoming 

 milky, but they are sluggish in their action 

 not quick as the others were for we have 

 endless varieties of rapidity in chemical action- 

 Now, if I mix them together, and stir them so 

 as to bring them properly together, you will 

 soon see what a different result is produced. 

 As I mix them they get thicker and thicker, 

 and you see the liquid is hardening and stiffen- 

 ing, and before long I shall have it quite hard ; 

 and before' the end of the lecture it will be a 

 solid stone a wet stone no doubt, but more 

 or less solid in consequence of the chemical 

 affinity. Is not this changing two liquids into 

 a solid body a wonderful manifestation of 

 chemical affinity ? 



There is another remarkable circumstance in 

 chemical affinity, which is that it is capable of 

 either waiting or acting at once. And this is 

 very singular, because we know of nothing of 

 the kind in the forces either of gravitation or 

 cohesion. For instance, here are some oxygen 

 particles, and here is a lump of carbon particles. 

 I am going to put the carbon particles into the 

 oxygen they can act, but they do not they 



