MEMOIRS 



MANCHESTER 



LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



I. On the Internal Cohesion of Liquids and the Suspension 

 of a Column of Mercury to a height more than double 

 that of the Barometer. By Prof. Osborne Reynolds, 

 F.R.S. 



Read April i6th, 1878. 



Introduction. 



The ease with which, under ordinary circumstances, the 

 different portions of liquid may be separated, is a fact of 

 such general observation that the inability of liquids like 

 water to offer any considerable resistance to rupture 

 appears to have been tacitly accepted as an axiom. In no 

 work on Hydrostatics does it appear that the possibility 

 of water existing in a state of tension is so much as con- 

 sidered ; and suction is always described as being solely 

 attributable to the pressure of the atmosphere. 



8ER. III. VOL. VII. /^ B 



