You will be more expert another time; but I must caution you, should you ever use this blow-pipe, to be very careful that the combustion of the alcohol does not go on with too great violence, for I have seen the flame sometimes dart out with such force as to reach the opposite wall of the room, and set the paint on fire. There is, however, no danger of the vessel bursting, as it is provided with a safety tube, which affords an additional vent for the vapour of alcohol when required. The products of the combustion of alcohol consist in a great proportion of water, and a small quantity of carbonic acid. There is no smoke or fixed remains whatever. --How do you account for that, Emily? EMILY. I suppose that the oxygen which the alcohol absorbs in burning, converts its hydrogen into water and its carbon into carbonic acid gas, and thus it is completely consumed. MRS. B. Very well. --_Ether_, the lightest of all fluids, and with which you are well acquainted, is obtained from alcohol, of which it forms the lightest and most volatile part. EMILY. Ether, then, is to alcohol, what alcohol is to brandy? MRS. B. No: there is an essential difference. In order to obtain alcohol from brandy, you need only deprive the latter of its water; but for the formation of ether, the alcohol must be decomposed, and one of its constituents partly subtracted. I leave you to guess which of them it is-- EMILY. It cannot be hydrogen, as ether is more volatile than alcohol, and hydrogen is the lightest of all its ingredients: nor do I suppose that it can be oxygen, as alcohol contains so small a proportion of that principle; it is, therefore, most probably, carbon, a diminution of which would not fail to render the new compound more volatile. MRS. B. You are perfectly right. The formation of ether consists simply in subtracting from the alcohol a certain proportion of carbon; this is effected by the action of the sulphuric, nitric, or muriatic acids, on alcohol. The acid and carbon remain at the bottom of the vessel, whilst the decarbonised alcohol flies off in the form of a condensable vapour, which is ether. Ether is the most inflammable of all fluids, and burns at so slow a temperature that the heat evolved during its combustion is more than is required for its support, so that a quantity of ether is volatilised, which takes fire, and gradually increases the violence of the combustion. Sir Humphry Davy has lately discovered a very singular fact respecting the vapour of ether. If a few drops of ether be poured into a wine-glass, and a fine platina wire, heated almost to redness, be held suspended in the glass, close to the surface of the ether, the wire soon becomes intensely red-hot, and remains so for any length of time. We may easily try the experiment. . . . . CAROLINE. How very curious! The wire is almost white hot, and a pungent smell rises from the glass. Pray how is this accounted for? MRS. B.