SCIENTIFIC AMUSEMENTS. 



1. States of Matter. 



CHAPTER I. 



GENERAL DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN SOLIDS, LIQUIDS, AND GASES; 

 AND NATURE OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL ACTIONS INVOLVING 

 CHANGE OF STATE, OR PASSAGE FROM ONE CONDITION TO 

 ANOTHER. 



A very little observation of the inanimate objects of nature and 

 art surrounding us is sufficient to show that one notable point in 

 which they differ from one another is in the varying textures and 

 degrees of compactness they possess. The air, through which 

 the hand may be moved with the greatest facility, but which, 

 nevertheless, is capable when put in motion by a fan of readily 

 moving about objects not too heavy, represents the lightest and 

 rarest class of bodies, spoken of as gases ; water, which can only 

 be kept from flowing in all directions by means of a containing 

 vessel, is an example of a much less rare, but intensely soft class 

 of substances, spoken of as liquids, of which olive oil and spirits 

 of wine (alcohol) afford two other examples ; whilst bricks and 

 stones, chairs and tables, more dense still and resistant to the 

 touch, belong to the class of solids. 



Between the most mobile liquids and the hardest and most 

 rigid solids may be ranged a number of substances of intermediate 

 texture ; when the liquid characteristics predominate as a whole, 

 as in the case of treacle, soft pitch, and such like substances, the 

 bodies are said to be viscid liquids ; when, on the other hand, 

 they have sufficient coherence to retain their form without the 

 aid of a containing vessel, but are easily altered in shape by 



A 



