504 



Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



Dr. de Heen requests us to point out the errors of reasoning or 

 experimentation that he has made in the demonstration of his 

 fundamental proposition, and asks for an explanation why we 

 characterize his paper as " very inaccurate." 



Our criticism, which refers to the experimental work on which 

 the reasoning is based, was caused by the very wide discrepancies 

 between the critical temperatures observed by Dr. de Heen and by 

 other experimenters. As examples we may cite the following : — 



Substance. 

 Methyl formate, A* . 

 B . 



Methyl acetate, A* 

 B 



Critical 

 temperature. 



214-0° C. 

 214-0 

 212-0 

 250-5 



233-7 

 233-7 

 232-9 



229-8 

 239-8 



278-7 



Observer. 



Young & Thomas. 



Nadejdine. 

 De Heen. 



Young & Thomas. 



jNadejdine. 

 Sajotschewski. 

 Pawlewski. 

 De Heen. 



With such differences in the most easily determined critical 

 constant it seemed to us to be useless to discuss the much more 

 difficult observations on volumes. 



"We are still of opinion that the interpretation of M. Grouy may 

 be admitted, and we think, with Dr. Kuenen, that the reason why 

 a stable equipoise in a vertical tube is not immediately produced is 

 due to the presence of impurity, in most cases of air or other 

 permanent gas. 



W. Bams ay. 

 S. Young. 



SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS ON CHANGES OF TEMPERATURE 

 CAUSED BY CONTACT OF LIQUIDS WITH SILICA")". BY DR. G. 



GORE, F.R.S. 



In addition to the remarks already made on the results of the 

 experiments in the above research, I beg leave to offer a further 

 explanation of the phenomena, and to say that all such changes of 

 temperature caused by the mere contact of liquids with solids are, 

 in my opinion, consistent with the statement that whenever two 

 substances approach or touch each other, they lose energy ; and when 

 they mutually recede, the opposite effect occurs. 



That this statement appears to be true of all bodies, whether 

 they are similar or dissimilar, of atoms, molecules, and masses, is 

 shown in many ways, only a few of which need be mentioned. It 

 is shown as loss of potential mechanical energy by falling bodies, 



* The letters A and B refer to two different speaimens. 

 ,t See Philosophical Magazine, Marcli 1894, pp. 306-316. 



