The most prominent fact is that, on the whole, the drops 
undergo a continuous diminution. To such an extent is this 
the case that the most rapidly falling drops of the above Table 
are nearly twice as heavy as the most slowly falling ones. The 
cause of this is probably to be sought for in the circumstance 
• # 
that when the flowing to the solid is more slow, the latter is 
covered with a thinner film of liquid, so that as the drop parts, 
the solid reclaims by adhesion more of the root of the drop 
than is the case when the adhesion of the solid to the liquid 
can satisfy itself from the thicker film which surrounds the 
drop in the case of a more rapid flow. The influence of rate 
is seen to extend even to the exceedingly slow rate of gt.— 
12”. 
This connexion between rate and weight (or quantity) 
should not be lost sight of by prescribers and dispensers of 
medicine, where a certain number of drops are to be given : 
A Pharmacist who administer 100 drops of a liquid drug at 
the rate of 3 drops per second may give half as much again 
as one who measures it at the rate 1 drop in two seconds : and 
so on. 
For our present purpose the effect of rate upon the size of 
a drop is of great moment, because it proves that there is no 
such thing as a drop of normal size. At no degree of slow- 
ness of dropping do drops as mme a size unaffected by even a 
slight change in the rate of t leir sequence. Hence, whenever 
a comparisor. has to be made between the sizes of different 
drops, we shill have to elimiiate this source of difference by 
taking drops at exactly the same rate. 
About the rate at which the diminution of size takes place 
for equal increments of gt., the table gives us little informa- 
tion, beyond the fact that on the whole, the sizes of the drops 
at the slower rates are less influenced by equal increments of 
gt. than are those of the quicker rates. This however only 
appears distinctly at and below the rate of about gt. — 1”.00. 
If the connexion between gt. and the drop size be repre- 
sented by a curve (Fig. II. A.) the abscissae being the values 
