240 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



tion of nitrate of lime can only issue completely from the pores by 

 placing the transformed limestone in the vacuum of the air-pump in 

 contact with the water and renewing it from time to time. 



When the subnitrate is placed in contact with a solution of bicar- 

 bonate of soda to change it into malachite, nitrate of soda remains 

 for a long time in the pores, which in time effloresces upon the sur- 

 face of the malachite, so great is the molecular attraction exerted by 

 the walls of the pores upon this compound. 



- I do not speak of the electrochemical effects which may intervene 

 in the actions of which we have spoken, because I have already 

 described them. 



The analyses of the substances above mentioned were made by 

 M. Gueraut, a distinguished pupil from the Laboratory for Advanced 

 Studies, under the direction of our confrere M. Fremy, at the Mu- 

 seum of Natural History, whom the Minister of Public Instruction 

 kindly placed at my disposal to aid me in my experiments. — Coinptes 

 Rendus de V Acad, des Sciences, July 8, 1872, pp. 52-54. 



REPLY TO PROFESSOR CLAUSIUS. BY P. G. TAIT. 



Professor Clausius has so long, and so repeatedlj?-, claimed as his 

 own the correct proof of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, that 

 no one can be astonished to find him unwilling to allow that his 

 claims are unfounded. 



But I must protest against his making accusations of deliberate 

 suppression (Absichtlichkeit) &c. and repeating them in the indirect 

 and offensive form of a statement that he did not apply them to 

 Sir W. Thomson. 



There has been nothing in the language I have employed, even 

 had it been tenfold more pointed, which is not admissible in fair and 

 temperate discussion. I have made no charges (though strongly 

 tempted to do so by Professor Ciausius's first letter), I have simply 

 examined historical facts and given what appears to me to be the 

 natural and inevitable conclusion from them. But, after having 

 taken every precaution to insure accuracy, to be first accused of 

 deliberate suppression, and then to be told that the tone of my far 

 too mild reply renders it impossible for Professor Clausius to continue 

 the discussion, is a trifle too much. 



In common with all the scientific friends I have consulted, I am 

 unable to perceive that Professor Clausius has " refuted " any one of 

 my former remarks, or that he is likely to be able to refute any of 

 the others — though he says it can be easily done. Let Professor 

 Clausius attempt the refutation, if he thinks proper to do so : but in 

 future it is to be hoped he will leave offensive and unjust charges 

 unmade. As I consider that my last letter contains all that it is 

 necessary for the present to say for my own view of the matter, I 

 shall continue to maintain and to promulgate the opinions therein 

 expressed, until convinced by argument, not by personalities, that 

 they are incorrect or insufficient. 



