244 ELEMENTS OF CHEMISTRY. 



to ascertain which of our conjectures may be the least impro- 

 bable. 

 Common fire We know that the phenomenon of fire is produced on one 

 is produced; globe on two principal or leading occasions. 1. When two 

 nation of bo- bodies combine j for example, in oxidation, sulphuration, the 

 die; 2. By combination of acids with bases, Tzc. ; and 2. When the sepa- 

 tncities! tleC * ratetl electricities mutually penetrate each other, and cease to 



appear as electricities. 

 Friction and (There are, nevertheless, two other manners by which fire 



concession. may be p l0 j uce( j . namely, friction and compression. As to 

 friction, there is reason to believe that it will be found to class 

 itself along with the electric discharge j and compression, or* 

 the other hand, does nothing more than drive the caloric out 

 of a body which it contains already produced. But in the 

 present part of our discussion, we attend only to the cases in 

 which caloric appears to be produced, that is to say, in which 

 we cannot conceive whence it comes). 

 The sun is in a It is incompatible with every scientific notion we possess, 

 state of com- tnat t h e phenomenon of an interior fire should be produced in 

 bustion, j \ ... ... , , • r- 



the sun, by a chemical combination, or by a condensation ot 



ponderable substances. Such an opinion has been rejected by 

 our ancestors, though their notions of combustion were less 

 precise than ours j and it appears to be contradicted by the 

 circumstance, that the magnitude of the mass of the sun re- 

 mains constantly without alteration, at least, as far as our 

 am! may there- observations can determine. It remains therefore as the least 

 fore be sup- improbable of our conjecture, that a process is affected in the 



ported in a ■ J . . • . • 



state of conti- sun, analogous to that which obtains between the points by 

 nued electric vvhich an electric pile is discharged j and we must imagine that 

 this process, when once commenced, must, from the nature of 

 the actual arrangement of things, continue for ever j and that, 

 consequently, the activity of created matters is maintained, 

 as it were, by a gyration in a circle, or by always returning again 

 to theirfirst situation or state, as in astronomy we know to be 

 the case with their motions in space. It is beyond the limits 

 of human reason to determine how these processes at first began, 

 and it would no doubt be unworthy of an enlightened and dis- 

 cerning mind to presume seriously to form any conjecture upon 

 the subject. 

 The electrici- Our experiments with the electric pile, have proved how 



much 



