to overcome the pressure of the atmosphere.
Whence it appears that, without this atmospheric pressure, we should not have any permanent liquid, and should only be able to see bodies in that state of existence in the very instant of melting, as the smallest additional caloric would instantly separate their particles, and dissipate them through the surrounding medium. Besides, without this atmospheric pressure, we should not even have any aëriform fluids, strictly speaking, because the moment the force of attraction is overcome by the repulsive power of the caloric, the particles would separate themselves indefinitely, having nothing to give limits to their expansion, unless their own gravity might collect them together, so as to form an atmosphere.
Simple reflection upon the most common experiments is sufficient to evince the truth of these positions. They are more particularly proved by the following experiment, which I published in the Memoirs of the French Academy for 1777, p. 426.
Having filled with sulphuric ether[1] a small narrow glass vessel, A, (Plate VII. Fig. 17.), standing
- ↑ As I shall afterwards give a definition, and explain the properties of the liquor called ether, I shall only premise here, that it is a very volatile inflammable
