Of the Progress of the Mixture of Liquids, etc. 3 1 9 



propose to speak before this illustrious Assembly sim- 

 ply of experiments that I have performed. 



Having procured a cylindrical vessel of clear white 

 glass i inch 8 lines in diameter, and 8 inches high, 

 provided with a scale divided from the bottom upwards 

 into inches and lines, I put it on a firm table in the 

 middle of a cellar, where the temperature, which 

 seemed to be tolerably constant, was 64 degrees of Fah- 

 renheit's scale. 



I then poured into this vessel, with due precautions, 

 a layer of a saturated aqueous solution of muriate 

 of soda, 3 inches in thickness, and on to this a layer 

 of the same thickness of distilled water. This opera- 

 tion was performed in such a way that the two liquids 

 lay one upon the other without being mixed, and when 

 everything was at rest I let a large drop of the essential 

 oil of cloves fall into the vessel. This oil being spe- 

 cifically heavier than water, and lighter than the solution 

 of muriate of soda on which the water rested, the drop 

 descended through the layer of water ; when, however, 

 it reached the neighbourhood of the surface of the saline 

 solution it remained there, forming a little spherical 

 ball, which maintained its position at rest, as though it 

 were suspended, near the axis of the vessel. 



I then poured, with proper precautions, a layer of 

 olive oil four lines in thickness on to the surface of the 

 water, to prevent the contact of the air with the liquid, 

 and having observed, by means of the scale attached to 

 the vessel, and noted down in a register, the height at 

 which the little ball was suspended, I withdrew, and, 

 locking the door, I left the apparatus to itself for 

 twenty-four hours. 



In a preliminary experiment, made to determine in 



