Tensions of Liquids and their Chemical Constitution. 85 



fixed mark, 57 drops in air, 27 in " turpentol " and 7 in ben- 

 zene. As the benzene and " turpentol " had nearly the same 

 specific gravity (see Table I), it is impossible that the differ- 

 ence in the size of the drops should be due to this alone. 

 Guthrie also determined the weight of drops of mercury in 

 various media. I give his principal results in Table I. 



Table I. 



Weight of drop of Weight of drop of 



Specific gravity. mercury in mercury in air. 



Air 0- - 7654 gram. 0-7654 gram. 



Water 1- 0-6462 " 0-6975 " 



Glycerine 1-245 0-5579 " 0-6151 " 



Benzene 0-S64 0-5601 " 0-5982 " 



"Turpentol"- 0-863 0-4071 " 0-4350 " 



Here also, a great difference is observed in the weights of 

 the drops of mercury in benzene and "turpentol;" and, al- 

 though there is not much difference in the drop-size of glyc- 

 erine and benzene, yet their specific gravities are far from 

 being the same. Guthrie states as one of the principal results 

 of his work that "the drop size of a liquid, which drops under 

 like conditions through various media, does not depend wholly 

 upon the density of the medium and consequent variation in 

 the weight of the dropping liquid." 



Evidently this behavior is due to the chemical constitution 

 of the liquids examined, and the question arises, would not the 

 determination of the surface tension between many other 

 liquids afford valuable data in regard to their chemical consti- 

 tution % The object of the present paper is to begin the answer 

 to the question. It will require much work in order to find 

 out what laws underlie these phenomena, and this article will 

 contain but a description of the apparatus used, together with 

 some indications of the direction that succeeding investigations 

 should take. The results obtained with the liquids examined 

 show that some importance may be attached to the thorough 

 investigation of the subject. 



Experiments of this kind should be carrried out with liquids 

 which are totally or nearly insoluble in one another, but it is 

 difficult, if not impossible, to find liquids fulfilling those condi- 

 tions. All liquids, which have a perceptible vapor tension at 

 the temperature at which a determination of solubility would 

 be made, must dissolve one another to some extent ; for as, in 

 general, every liquid has the power of absorbing to some degree 

 every gas or vapor, one liquid in this case would dissolve the 

 vapor of the other, and it is impossible to distinguish between 

 a solution of a substance in gaseous form and its solution in 

 liquid form. This is shown by the fact that, if water be 



