1885.] 



Thermal Properties of Ethyl Alcohol, 



329 



May 7, 1885. 



THE PRESIDENT in the Chair. 



The Presents received were laid on the table and thanks ordered 

 for them. 



In pursuance of the Statutes, the names of the Candidates recom- 

 mended for election into the Society were read from the Chair, as 

 follows : — 



Baird, A. W., Major, R.E. 

 Carpenter, Philip Herbert, D.Sc. 

 Clark, Sir Andrew, Bart., 

 M.D. 



Common, Andrew Ainslie, 



F.R.A.S. 

 Creak, Ettrick William, Staff 



Commander, R.N. 

 Divers, Prof. Edward. 

 Hicks, Henry, M.D. 



Hicks, Prof. William Mitchison, 

 M.A. 

 Japp, F. R., Ph.D. 

 Marshall, Prof. Arthur Milnes, 

 M.D. 



Martin, Prof. Henry Newell, D.Sc. 

 O'Sullivan, Cornelius. 

 Perry, Prof. John. 

 Ringer, Prof . Sydney. 

 Vines, Sidney Howard, D.Sc. 



The following Papers were read : — 



I. "A Study of the Thermal Properties of Ethyl Alcohol." 

 By William Ramsay, Ph.D., and Sydney Young, D.Sc. 

 Communicated by Professor G. G. Stokes, Sec. R.S. 

 Received April 18, 1885. 



(Abstract.) 



The abnormal vapour-density of many compounds has been 

 ascribed to their dissociating to a greater or less degree while in the 

 gaseous state. The compound molecule yields, with increase of 

 temperature, a constantly increasing amount of those simpler mole- 

 cules into which it dissociates ; and as this dissociation is attended 

 with increase of volume, the vapour-density of the mixture of gaseous 

 molecules decreases with rise of temperature. 



But this phenomenon is not confined to dissociating compounds 

 alone. It is known that many, if not all, liquids acquire an abnormal 

 vapour-density in proximity to their point of saturation. In studying 



2 a 2 



