To show that the heat abstracted by the boiling of one liquid will
freeze another, fill a tall narrow glass about half full of cold water
(the colder the better), and place in it a thin glass tube containing
some ether. Put them under the receiver of an air-pump. As you exhaust
the air, the ether will begin to boil, until at length, by continuing
the exhaustion, the water immediately surrounding the tube of ether
will freeze, and a tolerably large piece of ice may thus be obtained.
Ether evaporates so rapidly even under the pressure of the atmosphere,
that a small animal, such as a mouse, may be actually frozen to
death by constantly dropping ether upon it. If poured on the hand,
it produces a degree of cold that soon becomes, to say the least,
unpleasant.