when the vibrations of the note accurately synchronized with the periods
of the drops, the waves of sound aided what Plateau has proved to be the
natural tendency of the liquid cylinder to resolve itself into
spherules, and virtually decomposed the vein.

I have stated, without proof, that where absorption occurs, the motion
of the ether-waves is taken up by the constituent atoms of molecules. It
is conceivable that the ether-waves, in passing through an assemblage of
molecules, might deliver up their motion to each molecule as a whole,
leaving the relative positions of the constituent atoms unchanged. But
the long series of reactions, represented by the deportment of nitrite
of amyl vapor, does not favor this conception; for, were the atoms
animated solely by a common motion, the molecules would not be
decomposed. The fact of decomposition, then, goes to prove the atoms to
be the seat of the absorption. They, in great part, take up the energy
of the ether-waves, whereby their union is severed, and the building
materials of the molecules are scattered abroad.

Molecules differ in stability; some of them, though hit by waves of
considerable force, and taking up the motions of these waves,
nevertheless hold their own with a tenacity which defies decomposition.
And here, in passing, I may say that it would give me extreme pleasure
to be able to point to my researches in confirmation of the solar theory
recently enunciated by my friend the President of the British
Association. But though the experiments which I have made on the
decomposition of vapors by light might be numbered by the thousand, I
have, to my regret, encountered no fact which prove that free aqueous
vapor is decomposed by the solar rays, or that the sun is reheated by
the combination of gases, in the severance of which it had previously
sacrificed its heat.