10+ Inquiry into the Laws of /ijintt), 



11. Caloric, by augtrtentlng ehfticity, deftroys the affinity refulting from fubflances, of 

 which the conftituent parts have an unequal dilation, conformable to what has been 

 {tated in Art. VII. 



12. Obfervation farther fhews us, that when the refulting affinity is not fufficient to pre- 

 vent the decompofition, it fometimes renders it very flow and long. It is to this flownef* 

 of a£tion, to thefe progrelTive changes of conftitution, to the different degrees of faturation 

 which take place, that mofl: of the phenomena obfervable in vegetation, fermentation, the 

 animal economy, and in general among all bodies which contain condenfed elaftic fub- 

 jtances, muft: be afcribed*. This fubjedt will require ftill farther explanation. 



13. The refulting affinity ought always to be confidered as a fingle force, while the fub- 

 ftances from which it is derived remain in combination : but it is neceffary to confider the 

 elements of which it is compofed when a feparation takes place ; the latter is then executed 

 conformably to what has been explained in the divifion of fubflances, in proportion to the 

 ©ppoGte powers which zd upon them. 



14. -It frequently happens that a fubftance a£ts partly by a refulting affinity, and partly 

 by its elementary affinities. When a metal is diffolved by the nitric acid, one part of the 

 acid exerts a refulting affinity, and another a£ls by its elementary affinities, fo that the 

 oxigen of the latter part is divided between the metal and the azote, and the oxide which is 

 formed is diffolved in the undecompofed acid. 



15. It is evident, from what has juft been explained relative to refulting affinity, that a 

 falfe idea may be adopted of the properties of a body, when we confine ourfelves, as is too 

 often done, to the determination of its conftituent parts, without paying attention to the 

 other conditions of its conftitution, if, among thofe conftituent parts there may be fomc 

 which have undergone a confiderable alteration in their ftate. A quantity of oxigen gas 

 does not poffefs the fame chemical power when it is in the elaftic ftate, as when it exerts a 

 refulting force in its combination with azote, hydrogen, carbon, fulphur, or a metal. 



For example, the oxigen does not exert the fame action, and has not the fame refulting 

 affinity, in the fulphuric and the fulphureous acid : though in the fulphuric acid a fmaller 

 proportion of fulphur is combined, yet ic adheres much more ftrongly than in the ful- 

 phureous acid, and being more condenfed, it exerts a much more powerful chemical a£lion+. 

 We ought not to confound the oxigen gas which is held in folution by water, with the 

 oxigen which, by its comoination with hidrogcn, forms this liquid : the difference caufcd 

 between them by the ftate of condenfation, produces two fubftances very different in their 

 chemical adlion. 



• I have often had recourfe to this change of conftitution in the chemical explanations which I have had 

 occafion to give, and particularly in the leftures of the National School, where I defined the refulting affinity 

 by the name of coUeiii've ttffinity, and diftingui/hed it from elementary qginitiei. 



t I have obferved the effefls of condenfation in a memoir on the fulphureous acid (Annales de Chimie, 

 1789). 



It 



