Chemical and physical researches / by Thomas Graham ... ; collected and printed for presentation only ; preface and analytical contents by R. Angus Smith.

  • Thomas Graham
Date:
1876
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chemical and physical researches / by Thomas Graham ... ; collected and printed for presentation only ; preface and analytical contents by R. Angus Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    G longs to this class of appearances. From Mr. Dalton’s theory it follows that two gases absorbed into a liquid should really occupy always the same room as they would occupy, if each of them had been absorbed singly, at the degree of density which it has in the mixture. This law is inconsistent with the explanation given here; but it has been fully disproved by the subsequent experiments of Saussure. It may be stated, in conclusion, that all that is insisted upon in the foregoing sketch is, that when gases appear to be absorbed by liquids, they are simply reduced into that liquid inelastic form, which other- wise (by cold or pressure) they might be compelled to assume. That their detention in the absorbing liquid is owing to that mutual affinity between liquids, which is so common. An affinity which occasions the miscibility of liquids affects the bulk or density of the mixture, and frequently impairs the volatility of the more easily vaporized liquid in the mixture. In this way the phenomena of the absorption of gases are brought into the same class as those of the miscibility of liquids. II. ON TIIE FINITE EXTENT OF THE ATMOSPHERE. From Philosophical Magazine and Annals of Philosophy, i. 1827, pp. 107-109. Edinburgh, December 14, 1826. To Dr. Wollaston we owe a satisfactory reason for a limit to the atmosphere, even upon mechanical principles. The idea that the mere weight of the matter of gaseous substances might afford, at a certain degree of rarefaction, a balancing resistance to further expansion is certainly beautiful,—a conception worthy of that sagacious philosopher. Mr. Faraday, with his usual felicity in experimental research, has endea- voured to adduce instances of this equilibrium between the expansive power of gaseous matter and its clogging gravity—to give an experi- mental demonstration of the hypothesis. Admitting, as we do without hesitation, that the cause assigned would be fully adequate to produce the effect, the question still remains, but is it really the cause which does produce the effect ? The atmo- sphere may possess some well-known property which necessarily ren- ders it limited, and the proposal of any supposititious cause may be therefore unnecessary. Such a property we believe the atmosphere does possess, although
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