In certain cases observed long ago with what are called pasty bodies, this viscosity attains a value almost comparable to that observed by M. Spring in some solids.  Nor does rigidity allow us to establish a barrier between the two states.  Notwithstanding the extreme mobility of their particles, liquids contain, in fact, vestiges of the property which we formerly wished to consider the special characteristic of solids.

Maxwell before succeeded in rendering the existence of this rigidity very probable by examining the optical properties of a deformed layer of liquid.  But a Russian physicist, M. Schwedoff, has gone further, and has been able by direct experiments to show that a sheath of liquid set between two solid cylinders tends, when one of the cylinders is subjected to a slight rotation, to return to its original position, and gives a measurable torsion to a thread upholding the cylinder.  From the knowledge of this torsion the rigidity can be deduced.  In the case of a solution containing 1/2 per cent. of gelatine, it is found that this rigidity, enormous compared with that of water, is still, however, one trillion eight hundred and forty billion times less than that of steel.

This figure, exact within a few billions, proves that the rigidity is very slight, but exists; and that suffices for a characteristic distinction to be founded on this property.  In a general way, M. Spring has also established that we meet in solids, in a degree more or less marked, with the properties of liquids.  When they are placed in suitable conditions of pressure and time, they flow through orifices, transmit pressure in all directions, diffuse and dissolve one into the other, and react chemically on each other.  They may be soldered together by compression; by the same means alloys may be produced; and further, which seems to clearly prove that matter in a solid state is not deprived of all molecular mobility, it is possible to realise suitable limited reactions and equilibria between solid salts, and these equilibria obey the fundamental laws of thermodynamics.

Thus the definition of a solid cannot be drawn from its mechanical properties.  It cannot be said, after what we have just seen, that solid bodies retain their form, nor that they have a limited elasticity, for M. Spring has made known a case where the elasticity of solids is without any limit.

It was thought that in the case of a different phenomenon—­that of crystallization—­we might arrive at a clear distinction, because here we should he dealing with a specific quality; and that crystallized bodies would be the true solids, amorphous bodies being at that time regarded as liquids viscous in the extreme.

But the studies of a German physicist, Professor O. Lehmann, seem to prove that even this means is not infallible.  Professor Lehmann has succeeded, in fact, in obtaining with certain organic compounds—­ oleate of potassium, for instance—­under certain conditions some peculiar states to which he has given the name of semi-fluid and liquid crystals.  These singular phenomena can only be observed and studied by means of a microscope, and the Carlsruhe Professor had to devise an ingenious apparatus which enabled him to bring the preparation at the required temperature on to the very plate of the microscope.