The cohesive power of water is beautifully illustrated.  Have a small barrel or bucket so constructed as to be fitted with gauze at the top; immerse it exactly, so that the water may form a film between the meshes, and then open the tap at the bottom:  the water will not flow till the meshes at the top are broken by blowing on their surface.  The adhesion of the particles in a soap-bubble is another illustration, no less beautiful, as well as more familiar; for the soap, which might be supposed to be the cause of the phenomenon, serves only to prevent the intrusion of dust between the particles, but by no means to intensify their attractive power.

There are some liquids the adhesiveness of whose particles is so perfect as to bar out the access of air when we strew them on the surface of other liquids; and on the Continent it is not uncommon to protect wines against the action of the atmosphere by, instead of corking the bottle, simply pouring in a few drops of oil, which, being lighter than the wine, floats on the surface.  It is parallel to the instance of the barrel with the gauze-wire top mentioned above, that if we loosely plug a bottle full of liquid with a piece of cotton-wool, and invert it, the particles in contact with the wool will cohere so closely that the fluid will not be able to escape.  The adhesiveness of the particles of water to a solid surface can be exemplified by allowing one of the scales of a balance to float in water and leaving the other free; the one in contact with the water will refuse to yield after we have placed even a tolerable weight in the other which is suspended in the air.

The power of cohesion is more rigorous in some bodies than others.  In some cases the body will rupture if it is interfered with ever so little; in others, the particles admit of a certain displacement, and if the limits are not transgressed, they return to their original position when the compressing or distending cause is removed.  This rallying power in the cohesive force is called Elasticity, and it exists in no small degree in glass.  The spaces between the particles can, within limits, be either lessened by compression or increased by distension, and the particles retain their power of recovering and maintaining the relation they stood in before they were disturbed.  It is the power of cohesion or aggregation which resists any disturbance among the particles, and which restores order among them when once disturbance has taken place.  And not only does nature resist directly any undue interference with the cohering force, but tampering with it even slightly has often a certain deteriorating effect upon the physical properties of bodies.  A bell, for instance, loses its tone when heated, because by that means its particles are disturbed; though it recovers its tone-power as it cools, and as the particles return to their places.

In organic bodies, both during growth and decay, the particles are more or less in flux; but in feathers, after their formation, the attraction of aggregation remains constant, and by means of it their particles continue fixed in their places, not only with the life of the bird, but long after.  Nay, you may even crumple them up, and toss them away as worthless, and yet if you expose them to the vapour of steam, they will not only recover their form, but they can be made to look as beautiful as ever.