until the gold is reduced, it will generally be found that the vapour has carried a portion of gold on to the neighbouring part of the glass, and that this part, when placed over a sheet of white paper, has the ruby tint. With the rock-crystal both ruby and blue parts are produced; and when the ruby parts are subjected to rock-crystal pressure, they become beautifully green. In the arts also glass is often times coloured ruby by gold; I think that glass in this state derives its colour from diffused divided gold; and if either the ruby glass or the watch-glass be examined by a lens and the cone of rays, it will be seen that the colours are not due to any gold dissolved, but to solid and diffused particles. There is nothing in any of the appearances or characters, or in the processes resorted to to obtain the several effects, that point at any physical difference in the nature of the results; and without saying that gold cannot produce a ruby colour whilst in combination or solution, I think that in all these cases the ruby tint is due simply to the presence of diffused finely-divided gold.
Metallic character of the divided gold.
Hitherto it may seem that I have assumed the various preparations of gold, whether ruby, green, violet, or blue in colour, to consist of that substance in a metallic divided state. I will now put together the reasons which caused me to draw that conclusion. With regard to gold-leaf no question respecting its metallic nature can arise, but it offers evidence reaching to the other preparations. The green colour conferred by pressure, and the removal of this colour by heat, evidently belong to it as a metal; these effects are very striking and important as regards the action on light; and where they recur with other forms of gold, may be accepted as proof that the gold is in the metallic state. Although I do not attach equal importance to the fact already described, that gold-leaf frequently presents fine parts that appear to be ruby in colour, I am not as yet satisfied that they are not in themselves ruby; and if they should be so, it will be another proof by analogy of the metallic nature of other kinds of preparations eminently ruby.
The deflagrations of gold wire by the Leyden discharge can be nothing but divided gold. They are the same whatever the atmosphere surrounding them at the time, or whatever the
