3Gi Mr. E. J. Mills on a Defect in the Theory of Saturation. 



tion : the drop of castor oil forms a bulb and stem : the bulb is 

 penetrated from above, separates from the stem, and descends as 

 a rolling ring (see figs. b l , b 2 , b 3 , b 4 ). Crotonoil also forms a 

 beautiful large ring, from which festoons descend, and from the 

 end of each festoon a ring separates and then commences rolling. 

 A drop of balsam copaibse forms a bulb and stem ; the bulb en- 

 larges, expands upwards into a dome-shaped figure, from the 

 lower edge of which festoons and rings are let down, which rings 

 multiply and produce other festoons and rings. A drop of creo- 

 sote forms rings and festoons when the lard is at about 130° or 

 140°; but at 110° it forms a bulb and stem, the bulb being 

 penetrated from above. Carbolic acid at the lower temperature 

 forms a bulb and stem, the bulb being penetrated from above. 

 A drop of oil of cloves forms rings and festoons in hot lard, but 

 a bulb and stem with penetration from below at a lower tempe- 

 rature. The same remark applies to oil of cinnamon : at about 

 90° the spheroid is largely penetrated from below. 



It would occupy too much space and require too much picto- 

 rial illustration to enter into further details respecting these 

 submersion figures. They all admit of being grouped under 

 some four or five types : not that the figures of any one type are 

 identical ; for whether they be rings and festoons, or bulb-and- 

 stem figures, or dome-shaped, or cones or rolling rings, each 

 liquid presents characters of its own, which are again subject to 

 further variations in different media. 



King's College, London, 

 September 1864. 



XLIV. On a Defect in the Theory of Saturation. 

 By Edmund J. Mills, B.Sc* 



THE theory of atomicity — or, as it should be more correctly 

 termed, the theory of saturation — may be justly con- 

 sidered, according to Wurtz's suggestion f, as a development 

 of the doctrine of multiple proportions. It expresses the result 

 of an extensive induction, that there is a definite limit to the 

 combination of one substance with another, and that this limit 

 may be approached by successive stages. The atomicity or 

 saturability of a given body is expressed t by the number of unit 

 weights of hydrogen which can be made to combine with a cer- 

 tain standard weight of it. Thus the radicals represented by 

 the following formulae, 



* Communicated by the Author. 



f Lemons de Philosophie Chimique, p. 221. 



