344 M. F. Zollner on the Temperature and 



which have merely changed their places through disturbances of 

 equilibrium — that is, have been removed from its lower to its 

 higher regions. 



If, on the contrary, the sun is an incandescent liquid mass 

 surrounded by a dense covering of vapours and gases which per- 

 meate each other in accordance with Dalton's law, then a por- 

 tion of the gases (hydrogen for example) will be absorbed by the 

 incandescent liquid surface, according to the proportion of the 

 pressure at the base of the atmosphere*. Did, for instance, the 

 atmosphere of our earth consist of carbonic acid of some atmo- 

 spheres' pressure, the superficial portions of the seas would con- 

 sist of water impregnated with carbonic acid, out of which, on a 

 local rise of temperature or diminution of pressure, a portion of 

 the gas must escape in the form of air-bubbles at the place in 

 question, in order to restore the disturbed equilibrium of the 

 atmosphere. Could these currents of carbonic acid gas be made 

 visible, they would probably, by the analogies in their form and 

 frequency, remind us of the solar protuberances. How great, 

 moreover, is the capability of a water-surface to form bubbles on 

 the escape of gas previously absorbed, and on the bursting of the 

 bubbles to give occasion to suddenly vanishing resistances, one 

 may at any time convince one's self by opening a bottle of soda- 

 water. The height to which the fine drops of water are thrown, 

 under the influence of the force thereupon developed, gives at 

 the same time a means of measuring the initial velocities with 

 which they leave the surface of the water. 



That even incandescent liquids, at their surface, possess in a 

 high degree a capacity for forming bubbles under analogous but 

 highly magnified conditions is made plain by direct observa- 

 tions, namely Spallanzani's at the mouth of a crater in Strom- 

 boli : — 



"The glowing lava rose every two minutes to a height of 

 about twenty feet, and then sank with velocity back again into 

 the depth. Each time, on reaching its greatest height, its sur- 

 face puffed out, bubbles of several feet diameter swelled upwards 

 and at length exploded with a loud report, bursting into a hun- 

 dred fragments, which flew into the air with frightful violence 

 and were precipitated rattling on the mountain as a shower of 



stones and scoria Poulett Scrope, in the year 1819, 



observed these phenomena take place in a precisely similar 

 manner" f. 



Two years since, on the ground of these analogies and facts, 



* That incandescent liquids, even under a slight pressure, can dissolve 

 and absorb gases is shown by the observations of St.-Claire Deville on the 

 solution of gases in melting glass (Comptes Rendus, vol. lvii. p. 965). 



t Nauniann, Geognosie, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 116 et seqq. 



