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.

This is owing to a very peculiar property of the vapour of ether, and
indeed of many other combustible gaseous bodies. At a certain
temperature lower than that of ignition, these vapours undergo a slow
and imperfect combustion, which does not give rise, in any sensible
degree, to the phenomena of light and flame, and yet extricates a
quantity of caloric sufficient to react upon the wire and make it
red-hot, and the wire in its turn keeps up the effect as long as the
emission of vapour continues.

CAROLINE.

But why should not an iron or silver wire produce the same effect?

MRS. B.

Because either iron or silver, being much better conductors of heat than
platina, the heat is carried off too fast by those metals to allow the
accumulation of caloric necessary to produce the effect in question.

Ether is so light that it evaporates at the common temperature of the
atmosphere; it is therefore necessary to keep it confined by a well
ground glass stopper. No degree of cold known has ever frozen it.

CAROLINE.

Is it not often taken medicinally?

MRS. B.

Yes; it is one of the most effectual antispasmodic medicines, and the
quickness of its effects, as such, probably depends on its being
ins