A primer of evolution / by Edward Clodd.

  • Edward Clodd
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A primer of evolution / by Edward Clodd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/208 page 2
    liquid, and gaseous (which term includes the vapour- ous), and it pervades all space in a highly diffused state called ether, which is perhaps the raw material, as we may say, of the other states. In the solid state, Matter is more or less rigid, re- sisting any attempt to alter its shape or size, unless violent force is used. Some solids are less rigid or more yielding than others, as, for example, a piece of indiarubber compared with a piece of iron; but, speaking broadly, we define a solid body to be that which keeps the same volume or shape. In the liquid state, Matter always takes the shape of the vessel into which it is poured, spreading out so as to make its surface level. It cannot be compressed; a quart of water will not go into a pint pot. In the gaseous state, Matter has no surface, it is shapeless and wholly fills the vessel which contains it, but it can be pressed into a much smaller space. In the ethere-al state, Matter is enormously elastic ; it fills not only the vast spaces between earth and sun, and between sun and stars, but also the minute spaces between the particles that make up the smallest masses of Matter. There is no hard and fast line between any of these states, Matter being solid or sticky, liquid or vapour- ous, according to temperature; or, in other words, according to the motions which bind the particles to- gether, or drive them further apart. It is possible by extreme cold and pressure to make even air and some other gases solid, while all known simple substances can be brought into the gaseous state by the separating ac-
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3