In the breeding season the male deposits drops of sperm on a sheet of webbing, picks it up in these flasks by means of capillary attraction and carries it about until he falls in with a female.
The products obtained by the distillation of petroleum are not in a marketable condition, but require chemical treatment to remove acid and other bodies which impart a dark colour as well as an unpleasant odour to the liquid, and in the case of lamp-oils, reduce the power of rising in the wick by capillary attraction.
It was a favourite idea of his that chemical affinity and capillary attraction would eventually be included under the same law, and it was perhaps because of its recalcitrance to this cherished generalization that the undulatory theory of light was distasteful to him.
Above the level of the ground-water the soil is kept moist by capillary attraction and by evaporation of the water below, by rainfall, and by movements of the ground-water; on the other hand, the upper layers are constantly losing moisture by evaporation from the surface and through vegetation.
The point of the rostrum is pressed against the surface to be pierced; then the stylets come into play and the fluid food is believed to pass into the mouth by capillary attraction.
