104 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
the London Hospital Medical College. — Immersed Apertures. (A 
Reply to Col. Dr. Woodward.) By F. H. Wenham, Vice-President 
R.M.S. — On the Crystals in the Testa and Pericarp of several Orders 
of Plants, and in other parts of the order Leguminosse. By George 
Gulliver, F.R.S. 
PHYSICS. 
Observations on the Capillary Movements of Liquids. — M. Decharme’s 
recent observations on this subject are of considerable value, and we are 
grateful to the writer who, under the initials of A. B. M., has given an 
account of them in the u Chemical News ” of November 7th. After citing 
a number of experiments, the author says that, “ En resume , the little 
volatile, very soluble, very hygrometric liquids, which do not crystallise 
in the blotting-paper, are those which rise the highest, if not the most 
quickly. The order of capillary heights, that of velocity, and that of total 
duration, may therefore be, and in fact are, quite different for the same 
liquids experimented on successively in capillary tubes and in strips of 
blotting-paper. The laws governing the two phenomena are different. It 
appears, from experiments made on a great number of liquids, differing 
much both as to chemical composition and physical properties, that with 
capillary tubes the aqueous solution of chlorhydrate of ammonia and 
water are in the first rank for velocity and final height ; while in strips of 
blotting-paper these two substances' are surpassed in both respects; in the 
second, especially, by dilute acids, alkalies, and several potassic, sodic, calcic 
solutions, &c. F urther, in strips of paper, chlorhydric acid has the greatest 
velocity, and generally reaches the maximum height. Silicate of potash, 
which, with capillary tubes, stood between glycerine and olive-oil, is here at 
the very bottom of the scale; its movement is almost nil ; it only, indeed, 
reaches about 4 m.m. in the blotting-paper. From the preceding results 
relating to ascent of liquids in multiple strips, the following inferences are 
drawn : — 1. They explain how liquids, water in particular, with matter held 
by it in solution, rises to such great height in porous building materials of a 
house, where the foundations rest in a damp soil. It is not an extraordinary 
thing that, after some time, the presence of moisture and saline matters 
should be detected, not only on the ground floor, but on the first, and even 
the second ; the liquid ascending in capillary substances of great thickness, 
and not subject to much evaporation. 2. The vessels of plants, with their 
numerous anastomoses, and the permeability of the tissues composing them, 
are rather comparable to the superposed strips of blotting-paper than to 
capillary tubes. It is not surprising that the greater part of the saline 
solutions containing solids fit for their nutrition rise in the vessels to heights 
much greater than water would do, and also more quickly. It is not neces- 
sary, then, to have recourse to an extreme fineness of vessels, to explain the 
ascent of liquids in the tissues of plants. It is sufficient to remark that 
the saline solutions which naturally exist in the soil rise higher than pure 
water; sometimes to double the height, e.g., the following salts: — Nitrate, 
