Prof. G. Quincke on the Capillary Constants of Solid Bodies. 2G7 



sion for x ), then, after enjoying his laugh at my battle with 

 the demonstrated impossibilities, he may come to think that we 

 have beaten them after all. 



The n groups of Yin which we use for the irrationals 

 {iHj} . . . {«Hi} are obtained from that which gives -LH j- by 

 the cyclical permutations of x x L . . . x n) and complete with it 

 the whole group of II (71+ 1). The?i + 1 tactical values of {oH]}, 

 being numerically equal, depend on a binomial (n + l)tic. 



XXXV. On the Capillary Constants of Solid Bodies. 

 By Professor G. Quincke*. 



THE phenomena presented by liquids in contact with capil- 

 lary surfaces may either be referred to so-called molecular 

 forces (that is, to attractive forces which the smallest particles of 

 the bodies exert on each other at infinitely small distances), or 

 they may be deduced from a tension which the surface of a liquid 

 exerts like a stretched membrane, and which has the same value 

 over the entire surface if the liquid is bounded by the same body. 



Though the first point of view may be better suited for the 

 accurate mathematical treatment to which it has been subjected 

 by Laplace t and PoissonJ — to whom Gauss may perhaps be 

 added, for his treatment § combines both points of view — yet the 

 second has the advantage of introducing a definite physical idea 

 instead of the unknown molecular forces or molecular functions. 

 With its aid Young ||, by developing Seguin's^f theory, has found 

 the three fundamental principles of capillarity. MM. Hagen** 

 and Plateau tt nave more recently repeatedly called attention to 

 the tension of the surfaces of liquids ; and the experiments of the 

 latter J J, as well as those of Van der Mensbrugghe§§, on thin 

 liquid membranes are especially suited for demonstrating this 

 tension in the surface of liquids. 



Young || || first showed that the attractive forces exerted between 



* Translated from the Berliner Berichte, February 1868. 

 f Mecanique Celeste, vol. iv. p. 389 (1805). 

 \ Nouvelle Theorie de V Action Capillaire, 1831. 



§ Principia Generalia Theories Figures Fluidarum in statu JEquilibrii, 

 1830. 



|| Phil. Trans. 1804. Lecture on Natural Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 649. 

 11 Comment. Soc. Gott. vol. i. p. 301 (1751). 

 ** Abh. der Berl. Akad. 1845 & 1846. 



ft Mem. de VAcad. de Belgique, vol. xxxiii. (1861). Phil. Mag. S. 4. 

 vol. xxii. p. 286. 

 \X Ibid. vols, xvi., xxiii., xxx., xxxi., xxxiii., xxxvi. (1842-66). 

 §§ Bull, de VAcad. Roy. de Belgique, vol. xxii. No. 11 (1866), vol. xxiii. 

 No. 5 (1867). Phil. Mag. vol. xxxiii. p. 270, and vol. xxxiv. p. 192. 

 Illl Miscellaneous Works, vol. i. pp. 455 et seq. & p. 463 (1816). 



