THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 



AUGUST 1869. 



XI. On the Constants of Capillarity of Molten Bodies. 

 By G. Quincke*. 



1. T POINTED out in a previous communication! that the con- 

 -t. stants of capillarity of different fluids might be compared 

 at temperatures in the immediate neighbourhood of their solidi- 

 fication- or melting-points. I have now thought it proper to ex- 

 tend the determinations given elsewhere to a greater number 

 of chemical elements and compounds, as the forces which the 

 particles of any given fluid exert upon each other certainly de- 

 pend on circumstances less complicated than those between par- 

 ticles of heterogeneous substances, and we may hope accordingly 

 to obtain some clearer ideas in this way of the nature of the 

 perplexing molecular forces, which act (almost always) only at 

 exceedingly small distances. 



The following inquiry rests on two principles, previously 

 established by Dr. Thomas Young, which, however, I may, for 

 the sake of connexion, demonstrate i/i this place. 



2. A mass of fluid, m, at the point P of the free surface (*. e. 

 bounded by vacuum) of a fluid is attracted by another particle 

 A of the surface-layer (fig. 1), from which its distance is d, with 



* Communicated in abstract to the Royal Academy of Sciences, Berlin, 

 May 28, 1S68. Translated by Professor Jack, Owens College, Manchester. 



f Berliner Monatsbericht,Yeh. 27, 1868,]). 132. Pogg. Ann. vol. exxxiv. 

 p. 356. 



Phil. Mag. S. 4. Vol. 38. No. 253. Aug. 1869. G 



