162 MEMOIR OF DR. DALTON, AND 



Page 10. " I examine the natural structure of some metals, 

 1 see certainly nothing more than that they are hard solidly- 

 united heavy bodies, which become liquid in the fire at 

 different d^rees of heat, and lose their former connected- 

 ness (or cohesion), and without being heavier take up a 

 greater or less space than before. This is enough to enable 

 us to conclude that the figure of the smallest particles of 

 metals is changed by the fire, and that the fluid condition of 

 the whole mass, and its altered specific gravity, are the 

 necessary consequence of this alteration of figure. For 

 when the mass of a body without change of weight takes up 

 a greater or less space, it is certain that it can take place 

 under no circumstances except a change of figure in the 

 smallest portions of the bodies. A thousand small cubes may 

 be put into a smaller space than the same number of spheres 

 of the same mass and weight, and the heap made by the 

 spheres is not so great as if they were converted into stars, 

 and so on. When the specific gravity is altered, no matter by 

 what means, the figure and situation of the smallest parts can 

 no longer remain the same." 



Page 20. " Besides change of figure, I know no sufficient 

 reason for all that has been said ; for if we completely banished 

 the figure, and viewed the properties of the body as something 

 substantial in matter, I know not how we could explain 

 without contradiction the every-day experience ; or we must, 

 as Snellius with refraction, explain it by the will of God, 

 which settles the matter at once ; but if my understanding is 

 to lay hold of the method by which anything acts, this expla- 

 nation will not be satisfactory. 



Page 28. " But we have remarked that any combination 

 of bodies, on account of the figure of their parts, depends on 

 static laws, and there it is proved that the motion of a 

 weight is so much the slower the smaller the force is, in com- 

 parison with it. Let us apply this to the present case, and 

 bodies will appear to us as so many weights, and their com- 



