Page:Taine - Le Positivisme anglais, 1864.djvu/91

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L’espèce de surface a donc beaucoup d’influence. C’est pourquoi exposons la même substance en faisant varier le plus possible l’état de sa surface (ce qui est un nouvel emploi de la méthode des variations concomitantes), et une nouvelle échelle d’intensité se montrera. Les surfaces qui perdent leur chaleur le plus aisément par le rayonnement sont celles qui se mouillent le plus abondamment de rosée.[1]

  1. The conclusion obtained is, that, cœteris paribus, the deposition of dew is in some proportion to the power winch the body possesses of resisting the passage of heat ; and that this, therefore (or something connected with this), must be at least one of the causes which assist in producing the deposition of dew on the surface.

    “But if we expose rough surfaces instead of polished, we sometimes find this law interfered with. Thus, roughened iron, especially if painted over or blackened, becomes dewed sooner than varnished paper : the kind of surface, therefore, has a great influence. Expose, then, the same material in very diversified states as to surface” (that is, employ the Method of Difference to ascertain concomitance of variations), “and another scale of intensity becomes at once apparent ; those surfaces which part with their heat most readily by radiation, are found to contract dew most copiously.”