A good and striking experiment, displaying the change from the liquid to the vapour state, is shown by tying a piece of sheet caoutchouc over a tin vessel containing an ounce or two of water. When this boils, the india-rubber is distended, and breaks with a loud noise; or in another illustration, by pouring some ether through a funnel carefully into a flask placed in a ring stand. If flame is applied to the orifice, no vapour issues that will ignite, provided the neck of the flask has not been wetted with the ether. When, however, the heat of a spirit-lamp is applied, the ether soon boils, and now on the application of a lighted taper, a flame some feet in length is produced, which is regulated by the spirit-lamp below, and when this is removed, the length of the flame diminishes immediately, and is totally extinguished if the bottom of the flask is plunged into cold water; the withdrawal of the heat restores the power of cohesion. Another illustration of the vast power of steam [Page 67] will be shortly displayed in the Steam Ram; and, "Supposing," says the _Times_, "the new steam ram to prove a successful design, the finest specimens of modern men-of-war will be reduced by comparison to the helplessness of cock boats. Conceive a monstrous fabric floating in mid-channel, fire proof and ball proof, capable of hurling broadsides of 100 shot to a distance of six miles; or of clapping on steam at pleasure and running down everything on the surface of the sea with a momentum utterly irresistible. "This terrible engine of destruction is expected to be itself indestructible. We are told that she may be riddled with shot (supposing any shot could pierce her sides), that she may have her stem and her stern cut to pieces, and be reduced apparently to a shapeless wreck, without losing her buoyancy or power. Supposing that she relies upon the shock of her impact instead of fighting her guns, it is calculated that she would sink a line-of-battle ship in three minutes, so that a squadron as large as our whole fleet now in commission would be destroyed in about one hour and a quarter." CHAPTER VII. ADHESIVE ATTRACTION. The term cohesion must not be confounded with that of adhesion, which refers to the clinging to or attraction of bodies of a dissimilar kind. The late Professor Daniell defines cohesion to be an attraction of homogeneous ([Greek: _homos_], like, and [Greek: _genos_], kind) or similar particles; adhesion to be an attraction subsisting between particles of a heterogeneous, [Greek: _eteros_], different, and [Greek: _genos_], kind.