Dust, fogs, and clouds seem to have but little connection with each other, and we might think they could be better treated of under two separate and distinct heads. Yet I think we shall presently see that they are more closely related than might at first sight appear, and that dust is the germ of which fogs and clouds are the developed phenomena.

This was illustrated by an experiment in which steam was mixed with air in two large glass receivers; the one receiver was filled with common air, the other with air which had been carefully passed through a cotton-wool filter and all dust removed from it. In the unfiltered air the steam gave the usual and well-known cloudy form of condensation, while in the filtered air no cloudiness whatever appeared. The air remained supersaturated and perfectly transparent.