The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-14 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, Dec. 12.

Their Royal Highnesses the Crown Prince and
Princess of Prussia and Princess Helena dined Just
night with the Prince and Princess of Wales, at
Frogmore.
The following ladies and gentlemen were honoured
with invitations :—Countess Hohenthal, Baroness
Von Dobeneck, Count Furstenstein, Major Von
Schweinitz, Colonel Hon. A. Liddell, and Lieut.-
Colonel Hon. 1). de Ros.
The Queen, accompanied by her Royal Highness
Princess Louise, walked and drove in the grounds
this morning.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Prussia,
attended by Major Von Schweinitz, went to the
Royal Military College at Sandhurst.
Their Royal Highnesses the Crown Princess of
Prussia, Princess Helena, Prince William of Prussia,
and her Serene Highness Princess Hohenlohe, went
to London, attended by Baroness Von Dobeneck
and the Hon. Caroline Cavendish.

Prince Leopold, attended by Mr. Buff, visited his
Royal Highness Prince Arthur, at the Ringer's
Lodge, Green with-park.
Mr. George G. Adams, sculptor, had the honour
on Monday last to submit, for her Majesty's inspec-
tion, his busts of the late Field-Marshals Lord
Seaton and Lord Clyde.
Mr. R. Dowling, commissioned by the Tasma-
nian Government, has been honoured with a sitting
from her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales for
her portrait. _ _ .

Mr. Dowling has also been honoured with another
sitting at Frogmore from his Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales.

Mr. Norton Edwards, commissioned to execute
a bust for the town and corporation of Toronto,
has been similarly honoured.
The Right Hon. Sir Henry Bulwer, her Majesty's
Ambassador at Constantinople; Sir Rutherford
Alcock, Minister to Japan; and M. Antonio Pradilla,
Minister from Columbia, were severally introduced
by Lord Russell at audiences of her Majesty today.

DEC. 13.
The Queen, their Royar Highnesses the Prince
and Princess of Wales, the Crown Prince and Prin-
cess of Prussia, Princess Helena, Princess Louise,
Prince Arthur, Prince Leopold, their Serene High•
nesses Princess Hohenlohe and Prince Leiningen,
and the ladies and gentlemen in waiting, attended
Divine service this morning in the private chapel.
The Rev. Dr. Stanley preached the sermon.
His Royal Highness Prince Arthur arrived at
the Castle yesterday.
The Countess Blucher and the Rev. Dr. Stanley
also arrived.

The Prince and Princess of Wales.

WINDSOR, Dec. 13.

Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess
of Wales visited Windsor Castle this morning, and
lunched with her Majesty the Queen.
The Prince of Wales, accompanied by his Royal
Highness the Crown Prince of Prussia, walked
down from the Castle this afternoon about half-past
four o'clock, and attended Divine service at the
Chapel Royal of St. George. The sacred edifice
was filled to overflowing.

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN AND ROYAL FAMILY
will, on Thursday, take their departure for Osborne.
THE CROWN PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF PRUSSIA
with their infant family will, on Tuesday next, take leave
of her Majesty and leave the Castle on their return to
Berlin.

THEIR ROYAL HIGHNESSES THE PRINCE AND
PRINCESS OF WALES will remain at Frogmore Lodge, but
will shortly afterwards visit her Majesty at Osborne, and
be present at the Royal Family dinner circle on Christmas
Day.
THE Ex-EMPEROR FERDINAND OF AUSTRIA has
had a fall which compels him to keep his bed,
THE EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA, it is said, is in an
interesting condition.
THE HEREDITARY PRINCE OF AUSTRIA has been
ill for several days past.

PRINCE JULIUS, younger brother of King Chris-
tian IX., and major in a regiment of Prussian hussars, has
left Dusseldorf for Denmark. It is said that he will leave
the Prussian service and take a command in the Danish
army.
The Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia may
probably visit Malta shortly, on their way to Egypt and the
Holy Land.

His Excellency the Austrian Ambassador and
the Countess Apponyi entertained at dinner last night, at
Chandos House, his Excellency the French Ambassador,
his Excellency the Netherlands Minister, his Excellency
the Saxon Minister, Viscount and Viscountess Palmerston,
the Dowager Countess of Tankerville, Sir Henry Lytton
Bulwer, the Marquis and Marquise de Cadore, Mr. and
Madame Merry del Val, Mr. Henry Greville, Prince Ysen-
burg, and Count Kalnoky.
The Duke and Duchess of Sutherland remove
from Lilleshall, Salop, on Saturday, to Trentham, Stafford-
shire.

The Duke and Duchess of Grafton have left town
for Wakefield Lodge, Northamptonshire.
The Duchess of Argyll left Stafford House, St.
James's, where the duchess has been staying with the
Duchess (Dowager) of Sutherland, for Staffordshire, to meet
the duke on their way to Inverary Castle, N.B.
The Earl and Countess of Chesterfield arrived in
town on Friday from visiting the Marquis and Marchioness
of Bath, at Longleat Park, Wilts.
The Earl of Mount-Charles arrived in town on
Saturday from visiting Viscount and ViEcountess Dupplin
at Dupplin Castle, Perthshire. The countess has returned
home from visiting Lord and Lady Southampton at Whit-
tlebury Lodge, Northamptonshire.
Viscount and Viscountess Palmerston enter-
tained a select party at dinner on Saturday evening at
Cambridge House, Piccadilly. Lady Palmerston, later in
the evening, received a select circle of the diplomatic corps
and the nobility in town,

The Earl de Grey loft his residence in Carlton-
gardens, on Saturday, for Hickleton Hall, Yorkshire, on a
visit to the Right Hon. Sir Charles and Lady Mary Wood.
LORD AND LADY WILLIAM LENNOX have left
Berkeley Castle on a tour of visits, commencing with
Fawley Court and Hitchin Priory.
Viscountess Dungannon and Miss L. D'Arcy
Irvine have left 31, Dover-street, for Paris.
Tho Right Hon. B. Disraeli and Mrs. Disraeli
have returned to Grosvenor-gate from Stowe, Bucks, where
they have been on a visit to the Duke and Duchess of Buck-
ingham and Chandos.

SPHEROIDAL CoNDITIoN OF LIQUIDS.—Our
readers may recollect certain curious experiments
we mentioned many months ago, by which Professor Tom-
linson, of King's College School, London, showed that
certain liquids, when carefully deposited from the end of a
glass rod upon a watery surface, would spread out into a
film, which however would be terminated by an outline
peculiar to each liquid, which outlines ho called cohesion-
figures. He has now communicated a paper to the Philo-
soyh,ical ragazine, in which he considers the spheroidal
condition of liquids at common temperatures. If, he tells us,
a single drop of an essential oil, for instance, be deposited
on perfectly clean water in a chemically clean glass, a cha-
racteristic film or cohesion-figure will be formed, and so
much we knew from his former experiments; but, he adds,
if a second drop be gently delivered to the surface of the
film, " it will rest or roll about upon it, without contact, in
the spheroidal form." Some time ago M. Meunier described
cases in which liquids assume globular shapes on surfaces
of their own kind ; this is the case with alcohol upon alcohol,
but the globules do not last long. He also showed that if
alcohol were dropped upon tincture of iodine, which is
strongly coloured, the globule, during its momentary exis-
tence, does not take the colour, from which he argues that
there is no contact between the globule and the tincture, a
conclusion which, we think, does not absolutely follow,
since it requires a vary experienced eye to discover an in-
finitesimal lino of colour on a minute sphere in constant
motion, Professor Tomlinson has carried his researches
further, and finds in the globular state of :essential oils a
rough-approximate method of determining their age; for
the fresher the oil is, the longer it persists in a
globular
shape at the conmon temperature. To exemplify this, he
states that he took turpentine as purchased at an oil and
colour shop, and delivered a drop
of it upon water from the
end of a glass rod; the film of course spread over nearly
the whole surface. A second drop, being delivered upon
the film, assumed a spheroidal form, retaining it for an ave-
rage period of 15 seconds, Immediately afterwards he sub-
jected the oil he had bought to distillation off caustic potash
and repeated the above experiment with the fresh distillate,
when he found the average duration of the globule to be 36
competed to the old one,
lsaesctosnmdso;resothtahnatdothueblferetshh le,egtliombeu.