nd two-thirds of
its specific heat. On no one subject in chemistry has there been so much
labor expended, as in determining the specific heat of watery vapor. In
relation to this, Regnault observes: "It is important to remark that an
immense number of experiments have been made, to find the specific heat
of steam, and that it is about one-half of what it was thought to be."
He gives its value .475; but this is vitiated still, by the
non-recognition of the specific heat of the ether. Former experiments
give .847. Perhaps Regnault's numbers are entitled to the most weight.
Instead of taking the mean, therefore, we will give double weight to his
results; so that we get .600 for the specific heat of vapor, and as its
specific gravity is .625, the product .400 x .625 is .250, the same as
for hydrogen. Little importance, however, should be attached to such
coincidences, owing to the uncertainty of the numbers. If our position
be correct, the specific heat of hydrogen should be 10 times greater
than of oxygen. The atomic weights are as 1 to 8, while their volumes
are as 2 to 1; therefore, for equal spaces, the matter is as 1 to 16.
Calling the specific heat 10 to 1, and taking the amount due to half the
space, the product becomes as 8 to 16; but in the rarer gas there is
_8 times_ as much ethereal momentum or matter, which, added to the
atomic matter, renders the spaces equal.[3] Regnault's results give a
ratio of specific heats = 1 to 3.405/.215 = 1 to 15.6.

THE GOLDEN MEAN.

The history of science proves how few have practically respected the
adage of the ancients, which we have chosen for our motto; words which
ought to be written in letters of gold in every language under the sun.
Descartes, by considering the mechanical impulse of the ether sufficient
to explain the planetary motions, failed to detect the force of gravity
in the heavens. Newton, on the other hand, feeling that his law was
sufficient to explain them, and requiring a vacuum for its mathematical
accuracy, rejected the notion of an ethereal medium. His successors,
following too closely in his footsteps, and forgetting the golden law,
have forced themselves into a position by no means enviable. The
short-period comet has driven them to a resisting medium, which, while
according to Encke's hypothesis of increasing density around the sun, it
explains the anomalies of one periodical comet, requires a different
law of density for another, and a negative resist