Boyle's Experiments on Capillarity

IN Mr. Hardy's interesting "Historical Notes upon Surface Energy and Forces of Short Range," NATURE, March 23, p. 375, he says that "Boyle tried, but failed, to observe whether the (capillary) rise took place in a vacuum". Boyle writes in Experiment XXXV. of the "New Experiments Physico-Mechanical" that after showing the capillary rise in open air, "We tried indeed, by conveying a very slender pipe and a small vessel of water into our engine (air pump receiver), whether or no the exsuction of the ambient air would assist us to find the cause of the ascension we have been speaking of; but though we employed red wine instead of water, yet we could scarcely perceive through so much glass, as was interposed betwixt our eyes and the liquor, what happened in a pipe so slender, that the redness of the wine was scarcely sensible in it. But, as far as we could discern, there happened no great alteration to the liquor; which seemed the less strange, because the spring of that air, that might depress the water in the pipe, was equally debilitated with that, which remained to press upon the surface of the water in the glass". Boyle was a very careful and accurate experimenter, and he was trying to find whether there was an alteration in the capillary height in vacuo. His experiment was quite accurate and is worthy of his great reputation.