ON FLUIDS. l,3g 



prehend that thefe fubftances, when taken in by the animal, 

 act in fome meafure by keeping up a certain degree of action 

 in its ltomacb, and confequently in every part of the fyftem, 

 and thereby prevenls the death of the animal, which might 

 otherwife be deftroyed by the long continued application of 

 cold. Some fads mentioned by Dr. Pallas, though they re- 

 fpect a very different family of animals, render this conjecture 

 not a little plaufible*. 



This fubject is worthy of more attention. In particular, it 

 will be well to enquire, whether the alligator does fwallow 

 pine-knots, /tones, &c. in thofe parts of America in which it 

 does not pafs into the torpid flate. 



XII. 



Obfervations and Experiments on the conducting Power of Fluids, 

 By T. S. Traill, M. D. From the Author. 



To Mr. NICHOLSON. 

 SIR, Liverpool, Sept. 10, 1805. 



IF you think the following obfervations and experiments 

 worthy of a place in your excellent Journal, your inferting 

 them will oblige, 



Your obedient fervant, N 



J. S. TRAILL, M. D. 



Count Rumford was the rlrft who maintained that fluids Do&rine of 

 are abfolute non -conductors of caloric. This concision he Count Rum-^ 

 drew from the interefting fact he had difcovered, of the ex- £[ non -conduc- 

 treme flownefs with which ice melted when a ftratum of cold tors of heat, 

 water was interpofed between it and the heated body. He controverted * 

 imagines that it was always melted in fuch circumftances, 

 either by currents produced, in fome of them by changes in 

 fpecific gravity, or by the tranfmiffion of caloric through the 

 fides of the containing veflfeJ. The experiments of this illuf- 

 trious philofopher have roufed the attention of the learned, 

 and to the united labours of yourlelf, of Thomfon, of Dalton, 



* Hiftoria Glirium, &c. 



an4 



