Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/429

414 has become clear, it is seen that the ruby portion below is as a cloud sinking from it; and in the part which has apparently been cleared from colour by the settling of the particles, the lens and cone of light still show the few, or rather the line diffused particles yet in suspension, though the protochloride of tin can show no gold in solution. The mould or mucus before spoken of, often collects the larger, heavier particles, and becomes of a dark blue colour; it may then be taken out by a splinter of wood, and being shaken in water, disengages the particles, which issue from it in clouds like the sporules from a ripe puff-ball.

A gradual change goes on amongst the particles diffused through these fluids, especially in the cases where the gold is comparatively abundant. It appears to consist of an aggregation. Fluids, at first clear or almost clear to ordinary observation, become turbid; being left to stand for a few days, a deposit falls. If the supernatant fluid be separated and left to stand, another deposit may be obtained. This process may be repeated, and whilst the deposition goes on, the particles in the fluid still seem to aggregate; it i only when the fluid is deprived of much gold that the process appears to stop. Even after the fluid has attained a line marked ruby tint, if allowed to stand for months in a place of equable temperature, the colouring particles will appear in floating clouds, and probably the aggregation is then still going on. That the particles of gold when they touch each other do in many cases adhere together with facility, is shown in many experiments. In order to test this matter mechanically, I gave much agitation to a dense ruby fluid, but did not find it cause any sensible change in the character. When gold particles of a much larger size were agitated in water, they did cohere together, and the fluid, which required a certain time for settling at the beginning of the experiment, settled in a much shorter time at the termination.

If these fluids be examined generally their appearances differ not merely under different circumstances, but also under the same circumstances, though they always consist of a colourless liquid and diffused particles of gold. A certain fluid in a bottle or glass, looked at from the front, i. e. the illuminated side by general daylight, may appear hazy and amethystine, whilst in