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SELECTED ARTICLES. 
the vapors of the inferior liquid, even when the temperature 
of the latter is many degrees above the ordinary boiling point, 
and under the same pressure. The lower liquid takes this 
elevated temperature because the vapors which it produces 
cannot escape; but by degrees the tensions of the vapors be- 
come so great, that they break with violence the coherence of 
the particles of the upper liquid, and thus produce the explo- 
sions. 
When we place in the mixture wires of platinum or of iron, 
the explosions do not take place, even when the upper liquid 
is thick and viscous oil of turpentine, which can hardly be 
raised to the boiling point without the wires. The effects of 
the platinum wires is so much the more curious, since they 
totally prevent the appearance of the explosions, even when 
they are wholly within the lower liquid, without extending at 
all into the upper. It, however, requires great care in intro- 
ducing these wires into a liquid heated to near the boiling 
point, because it then occasions a violent ebullition, which 
quickly throws the liquid out of the vessel. 
Jinn, des Mines. 
