166 



FREEZING OP ALCOHOL. 



conjectural 

 •peculations. 



that the necesssity of referring to some electro-chemical theory 

 will excuse the attempt of having imagined one ; and though 

 this necessity cannot be pleaded in justification of extravagant 

 conjectures, they will, perhaps, be thought pardonable in a de- 

 partment of science where experiment is yet wanting to regu- 

 late the efforts of imagination, although such efforts may be 

 useful to arrange the existing facts, and indicate the course 

 which may lead to the discovery of new ones. 



(To le continued!) 



The author's 

 motives for 

 publication. 



II. 



Notice respecting Experiments on the Freezing of. Alcohol, ly 

 Mr. Hutton*. 



1HAVE been prevailed upon to communicate a notice of 

 some experiments and observations I have made on the 

 production of a great degree of cold. It is scarcely necessary 

 to observe, that my doing so at this time is. not a matter of 

 choice : these experiments and observations were mentioned 

 to my friends, as they were made without any injunction as 

 to secrecy, as I did not anticipate that such communications 

 would either be received with so much avidity, or repeated 

 with so much eagerness. The consequence has been, that 

 accounts of these experiments have now got into very general 

 circulation, and many very contrary and erroneous ideas have 

 been entertained, not only as to their extent, but even as to 

 their nature; and it has been imagined, that a communication 

 like the present is the only way to obviate these misconceptions 

 —misconceptions which I owe as much to you as to myself to 

 remove. 

 Advantages to The importance of a method of producing a great degree 



be derived by f co ]<j becomes apparent, when it is considered, that it is at 



change of form . . , . L 



in bodies from P res ent a very common opinion among chemists, — an opinion 



cooling. founded on a very general analogy, that all gases may be re- 



duced to the state of liquids by the abstraction of caloric, and 



Read to the Ediuburgh Institute, on the ad of Feb, last. 



that 



