DECEMBER. 
351 
the freezing together of the tips of the eyelashes, during the 
momentary twinkling of the eye ; — these warn us of the 
real state of the atmosphere, and of the danger of remaining 
long exposed^ even when it does not feel very unpleasant to 
the senses. 
C. — We yesterday found one of the fowls in the barn in 
an awkward predicament : it was lying on the floor^ unable 
to stand ; and on taking it up we perceived that both feet 
were frozen hard^ so as to be perfectly stiff, and chinking, 
when struck, like stones. We brought it to the house, and 
put it to lie with its feet in a bowl of cold water, where it 
remained very contentedly for a considerable time, until its 
feet were thawed, and they seemed perfectly restored. 
F, — They are for the present, but after having once been 
frozen, they are peculiarly liable to a recurrence of the acci- 
dent, and rarely survive the winter. 
C. — I observed a curious circumstance a short time ago : 
I had taken a bowl of water into my room to wash my 
hands, but something delaying me, it remained for an hour 
untouched. Then, when I dipped my hands in it, it was 
perfectly fluid, and altogether free from any incipient crystals 
of congelation ; but in an instant it became a semi-solid 
mass, filled with minute particles of ice. 
F, — I have often observed the same fact, and at one 
time mentioned it to my friend, Mr. W. C. St. John, of 
Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, whose acquaintance with 
the science of chemistry led me to ask him for an explana- 
tion. He told me that, as " water cools below 32°, the 
particles of it approach one another ; but in consequence of 
its being still, ^. e, unagitated, those particles, although they 
approach, remain equidistant from each other : — that is to 
say, the repulsive power (alias, the matter of heat) and the 
