concentrated sulphuric acid. No action had taken place at the end of two years, the zinc then remaining as bright as at first; and this tact is very properly adduced in illustration of the fixedness of sulphuric acid at common temperatures. Here I should again presume, that the elastic force which tended to form vapour was surpassed by the force of gravity.
Whether it be admitted or not, that in these experiments the limit of volatilization, according to the principle of the balance of forces before stated, had been obtained, I think we can hardly doubt that such is the case at common temperatures with respect to the silver and with all bodies which bear a high temperature without appreciable loss by volatilization, as platina, gold, iron, nickel, silica, alumina, charcoal, &c.; and consequently, that, at common temperatures, no portion of vapour rises from these bodies or surrounds them; that they are really and truly fixed; and that none of them can exist in the atmosphere in the state of vapour.
But there is another force, independent of that of gravity, at least of the general gravity of the earth, which appears to me sufficient to overcome a certain degree of vaporous elasticity, and consequently competent to the condensation of vapour of inferior tension, even though gravity should be suspended; I mean the force of homogeneous attraction.
Into a clean glass tube, about half an inch in diameter, introduce a piece of camphor; contract the tube at the lamp about 4 inches from the extremity; then exhaust it, and seal it hermetically at the contracted part; collect the camphor to one end of the tube; and then, having placed the tube in a convenient position, cool the other end slightly, as by covering it with a piece of bibulous paper preserved in a moist state by a basin of water and thread of cotton; in this way, a difference in temperature of a few degrees will be occasioned between the ends of the tube, and after some days, or a week or two, crystals of camphor will be deposited in the cooled part; there will not, however, be more than three or four of them, and these will continue to increase in size as long as the experiment is undisturbed, without the formation of any new crystals, unless the difference of temperature be considerable.
A little consideration will, I think, satisfy us that, after the first formation of the crystals in the cooled part, they have
