ETHER. 



' 



with it was dissolved. It dissolved the 

 volatile oils, and also phosphorus. Its 

 specific gravit) was inferior to that of al- 

 cohol, being as 94 to 100. After its pro- 

 duction, when the heat was much raised, 

 a quantity of oily matter was distilled 

 over, and carburetted hydrogen was dis- 

 engaged, the residual liquor was of a 

 dark brown colour, and contained a large 

 quantity of phosphoric acid. (^Annales de 

 Chimie, torn. xi. p. 123.) 



Fluoric ether has been said to be form- 

 ed by putting fluate of lime, previously 

 ignited and in powder, into a retort, with 

 equal weights of alcohol and sulphuric 

 acid, and distilling to dryness. The pro- 

 duct of this distillation was again distilled 

 to one half, and a portion of fluoric acid 

 abstracted from it by a solution of potash, 

 which at the same time precipitated a 

 portion of silex, so as to render the whole 

 gelatinous. This, on being again distill- 

 ed, afforded an ether of the specific gra- 

 vity of 0.720, which burnt with a blue 

 flame, and had a bitter taste. It is added, 

 that it greatly resembled sulphuric ether; 

 and it is not improbable that it may have 

 been merely this ether disguised. (Ni- 

 cholson's Journal, vol. viii. p. 143.) 



Acetic ether has been known for a con- 

 siderable time to chemists, Lauragais 

 having given, in 1759, the process for 

 preparing it, by distilling alcohol, with 

 the concentrated acetic acid that is pro- 

 cured by the decomposition of acetate of 

 copper by heat. Scheele, as well as 

 other chemists, have been unable to furm 

 it ; but Pelletier has observed that it is 

 procured with certainty by distilling ale 

 hoi repeatedly from the acetic acid. T 

 alcohol at first acquires an ethereal odour, 

 but is miscible with water; by returning 

 it on the residual liquor, distilling it, and 

 repeating this for a third time, this be- 

 comes stronger: the acid contained in the 

 liquor thus procured was saturated by 

 the addition of carbonate of potash; and 

 by distillation there was procured from 

 it a pure acetic ether, in quantity about 

 half of the alcohol employed. (" Me- 

 moirs de Chimie," torn. i. p. 237.) It 

 was soluble in water in a limited quanti- 

 ty, seven measures dissolving three. It 

 has an agreeable odour, ethereal, but in 

 which the smell of acetic acid is also per- 

 ceptible. It is very volatile and inflam- 

 mable : it burns with a clear light, and 

 leaves a little charcoal. 



According to Pelletier, acetic ether may 

 likewise be formed by distillation, from a 

 mixture of sulphuric acid, acetate of cop- 

 er, and alcohol ; and according to T.ap- 



co- 



he 



lanche, it may be obtained from a mixture 

 of sulphuric acid, alcohol, and acetate of 

 lead. 



ETHER of Sir Isaac Newton. When we 

 have separated the actions of bodies upon 

 each other, so far that the effects appear 

 to us to be simple, we resolve the causes 

 of motion into two ; namely, a disposition 

 of bodies to come together, called at- 

 traction, and a disposition to recede from 

 each other, called repulsion. Impulse, 

 or the communication of motion by ap- 

 parent contact, will not constitute a pe- 

 culiar case, because we know that bo- 

 dies cannot be, or are not, in any of our 

 observations, brought close to each 

 other. But as in all our philosophising 

 we endeavour to simplify the general 

 principles, it becomes a question, whe- 

 ther the effects of attraction and repul- 

 sion may not depend upon the same 

 cause ; and as we have many gross in- 

 stances of bodies being urged together 

 by the action of fluids, it naturally occurs 

 to enquire, whether the apparent attrac- 

 tions in nature may not be caused by 

 some fluid medium. Sir Isaac Newton 

 was strongly of this opinion, as appears 

 by his letter to Boyle, published in 

 Birch's life of that philosopher, as well as 

 by the famous paragraph at the end of 

 his " Principia," and one of the queries 

 at the end of his " Optics," in the pre- 

 face to the second edition of which he re- 

 marks, that he does not take gravity for 

 an essential property of bodies. In the 

 query here mentioned, he proceeds up- 

 on the supposition of an elastic medium 

 pervading all space ; a supposition 

 which he advances with considerable 

 confidence, and which he supports by 

 very strong arguments, deduced as well 

 from the phenomena of light and heat, as- 

 from the analogy of the electric and mag- 

 netic influences. Thismedium he sup- 

 poses to be much rarer within the dense 

 bodies of the sun, the planets, and the 

 comets, than in the empty celestial spa- 

 ces between them, and to grow more 

 and more dense at greater distancesfrom 

 them, so that all these bodies ure natural- 

 ly forced towards each other by the ex- 

 cess of pressure. 



The effects of gravitation might be 

 produced by a medium thus constituted, 

 if its particles were repelled, by all ma- 

 terial substances, with a force decreasing 

 like other repulsive forces, simply as the 

 distances increase; its density would then 

 be every way such as to produce the ap- 

 pearance of an attraction van .;/g - like 

 that of gravitation : such an ethereal me- 



