114 Mr. C. Tomlinson on the Action of 



bees'-wax run round it. On presenting the ether-sponge to the 

 centre of this sheet of water, the vapour drove away the water 

 and left a circular dry space in the centre of the mercury or of 

 the disc. This is a striking experiment, especially on the sur- 

 face of the mercury, which shows the effect very well, and allows 

 the thickness of the sheet of water to be somewhat greater than 

 on the glass. The cohesion of the water is also well shown by 

 its not closing up again when the ether-vapour is removed ; but 

 it forms a beautiful circular pupil with a convex surface towards 

 the mercury. If, instead of the sponge, a dropping-tube con- 

 taining ether be brought down to the surface of the water on the 

 glass disc, the water will open as before ; and on letting the ether 

 fall the water will be still further repelled, so as to form a more 

 convex ring round the liquid ether than it did around its vapour. 

 Other volatile liquids produce different effects on this sheet of 

 water. A single drop of creosote placed on the centre disperses 

 the water, and leaves a long irregular portion of the glass dry. 

 Several hundred drops of naphtha form a lenticular disc on 

 the water without displacing it. A single drop of ether brought 

 down upon it disperses both naphtha and water, and finds its 

 way to the glass, leaving a convex-bounded ring which slowly 

 closes in upon the dry space of glass. But the most remarkable 

 result is with benzole : a disc of this being formed on the sheet 

 of water, and the ether-sponge held over it, hollows it out 

 into a thick ring and holds it in that state for some time. In 

 fact there is a thick convex ring of benzole on water, the force 

 which holds it open being the vapour of ether. Chloroform 

 dropped on the sheet of water displaces it, and forms as it were 

 a cavity, which it occupies by itself as in a pit of solid matter. 

 The ammonia-sponge, when presented to the chloroform, drives 

 small globules of the latter out of the cavity, and forms with the 

 remainder a soapy looking compound which permanently excludes 

 the water. 



Results of this kind, however curious, only served to con- 

 vince me that it is far more easy to multiply phenomena than 

 to discover laws. Being strongly impressed with the idea of 

 repulsion which these results seemed to favour, I tried the effects 

 of heat ; and instead of obtaining a clue to the explanation I was 

 in search of, I extended the phenomena which we are now accus- 

 tomed to call the " spheroidal condition " of matter. Boutigny's 

 striking experiments had not then been contrived ; and my first 

 acquaintance with that class of phenomena was derived from 

 Dumas's Chimie Appliquee, vol. i. p. 31, where is described the 

 experiment of dropping water into a red-hot platinum crucible. 

 I varied the experiment by dropping ether into it, and found it 

 possible to accumulate a considerable quantity. I did the same 



