408 Transactions.— Chemistry. 
them,—e.g., their annular markings being hills of oil, and the ground in 
which they are set a resin; and that, further, I stated these figures to be 
caused by the resin dissolved in these oils leaving them for the water, the 
surface of which they monopolize to the comparative exclusion of the oil, 
owing to their affinities for it being greater than those of oil for the same 
liquid. Now, granted all this, and I have not yet heard of anyone dis- 
puting it, the explanation of the problem set us—the nuclear action of oils 
in super-saturated solutions—becomes an easy matter. 
Such solutions, as they are most likely to be made, are super-saturated 
to the highest degree possible at a given temperature, in short are saturated 
super-saturated solutions; and so, for the initiation of the change in view, 
require divesting of but the minutest portion of water, and this will hardly 
fail to be immediately effected by the application thereto of any old vege- 
table or animal oil, as such contain resinous matter much of which is so 
far metamorphosed as to be of a decidedly acidic nature. The affinities for 
water of these resinoid matters may be feeble, but they certainly have to 
contend with affinities also feeble; nor, it should be remarked, is the result- 
ing product entirely or even notably soluble in water, or such resin might 
behave only as salts, which when added thereto are ineffective as nuclei; 
but water is taken away from the solution to be incorporated with such 
matters in a solid form, and so a portion of salt is liberated to form the 
nucleus for a general solidification. But it should follow as a consequence 
that, if resin is the cause of nuclear action, a freshly made oil may not 
have nuclear action of the kind at all; and this is exactly what we are told 
by these investigators, they find that while “turpentine old but bright 
and clear acted powerfully as a nucleus ” it afforded when distilled a liquid 
which was not then aetive. Another example they give is that of an old oil 
of bitter almonds which they experimented with. This oil though strongly 
nuclear gave a distillate which was non-nuclear ; and again we learn from 
them that the oils of commerce as we have them, even those of the same 
kind and presumably of the same quality apparently, any way having sur- 
face tension very similar in degree, vary in the same way that the oils 
named above do. 
Now all the cases occurring in which oils are non-nuclear are explained 
I believe by my theory upon either the very probable supposition or the fact 
that they do not contain resinous matter; but these cases are certainly not 
explained by Professor Tomlinson and his associate. They show that in the 
case of active and inactive oil of turpentine their tensions were to each 
other as near as 2:2 to 2:4, a difference admittedly insufficient to account 
for their mutual diversity in relation to the saline solution upon this tension 
theory. With all deference therefore to the opinion of these eminent 
[i 
