II. On drops

Abstract

In the following investigation, the word drop is used in a rather more definite sense than that which is usually attached to it. In common speech a drop signifies any mass of liquid matter whose form is visibly influenced towards the spherical by the attraction of its parts, and whose sensible motion or tendency is towards the earth. This definition both includes drops with which we are not here concerned, and excludes others which we shall have to consider; for we shall have to measure the size of drops; and it can only be of avail to measure the size of such drops as are formed under fixed and determinable conditions.