Inquiries into the Principles of Liquid Attraction. 89 



5th. Two floating bodies, both having a depression of the liquid, 

 will, when near, approach each other, with the liquid descending 

 "between them. 



6th. Two floating bodies, one having an elevation and the other a 

 depression of the liquid, will, when placed contiguous to each other, 

 recede. 



Of the seat and properties of Liquid Attraction. 



Having noticed some of the laws and phenomena of liquid attrac- 

 tion, it now remains to point out the seat and properties of this attrac- 

 tion. It may, however, in the first place, be proper to take some 

 notice of the opinions of philosophers on this subject. As far as my 

 information extends, but little difference of opinion exists in relation 

 to the attraction of the particles of liquids for each other ; but in rela- 

 tion to the attraction which takes place between liquids and other 

 bodies, some little difference of opinion exists on the subject, while 

 at the same time, some affirm, and others deny the existence of a 

 repelling power. According to Enfield, Book I, Prop. 3d. Ex. 1. 

 " the drop is spherical because, each particle exerts an equal power 

 in every direction, drawing other particles towards it on every side, 

 as far as its power extends." Doct. Good, in his " Book of Nature," 

 says, " that there being an equal tendency in every particle of homo- 

 geneous bodies to press together, they must press equally towards 

 one common centre." "Hence, then, the cause of the globular figure 

 of drops of quicksilver, drops of water, drops of rain, and drops of 

 dew." 



The doctrine of an equal attraction, or mutual cohesion between 

 the particles of a liquid, without discriminating in the least, the situa- 

 tion and circumstances of those particles, is, indeed, ancient ; and it 

 appears to have been adopted as a self evident proposition, sufficiently 

 obvious without proof; and we see that philosophers have, for more 

 than a century, supported it with the constancy of an " Aristaeus," 

 amidst all the "Proteus" forms in which' liquids have appeared. 

 But has this doctrine of a mutual cohesion of liquid particles yet dis- 

 closed to them, the true method of explaining the various phenomena 

 of liquids ? 



Water is a liquid, the most abundant in nature, and when pure, 

 perhaps a perfect one ; but its properties are very different from what 

 its appearance would lead one to expect. Until lately, it was con- 



VoL. XVII.— No. 1. 12 



