130 INSENSIBLE CALORIC. 



it would become constantly colder by expansion, until it would, at 

 length, have so much of its sensible caloric taken away in the form of 

 insensible, that its temperature would be reduced to, at least, 100° be- 

 low that of freezing water. 



3. A curious conclusion is derived from the preceding statements, 

 and it is principally foi the presentation of it to your readers, that these 

 lines have been penned. The conclusion is, that the interplanetary 

 spaces, or the spaces between the atmospheres of the planets, and that 

 profound abyss existing between the myriads of stars which float in 

 immensity, though inconceivably cold, yet contain an immense amount 

 of insensihle caloric ; and therefore, if caloric be matter, there is pro- 

 perly speaking, no such a thing as a vacuum^ but the Universe is a ple- 

 num. Hence there is an immense ocean of calorific matter, which fills 

 all space and every pore of matter, and which is in no degree depen- 

 dent for its existence or source to sun, or star. 



4. It would appear, that the existence of heat in a sensible form is 

 mainly due to the impenetrability of matter; that is, that two bodies, or 

 two particles of matter cannot occupy the same space at the same time. 

 In proportion as the number of particles of ponderable matter increase 

 in a given space, or as their density increases, the insensible caloric of 

 that space becomes sensible, and the temperature rises. This may be 

 regarded as the general law ; for diflerent kinds of matter, though of 

 equal density, do not give out precisely the same amount of caloric un- 

 der the same circumstances ; and this is, no doubt, to be referred to a 

 specific attraction, which each has for it, and which, therefore, causes a 

 slight modification of the general law. 



5. In the case of fires or of ordinary combustion the resulting heat 

 is not generated, but merely liberated during the process. The fuel, 

 but especially the oxygen of the, air, contained previously in a latent 

 form the heat, which now makes itself to be felt. The new compounds, 

 which are formed between the oxygen and combustible, have a small- 

 er capacity for caloric than the materials had in their original form, and 

 consequently caloric, which was before incapable of afibcting the ther- 

 mometer or the sense of touch, now becomes sensible. Combustion, 

 therefore, instead of forming caloric, only gives us a draft upon that 

 vast, unexpended and inexhaustible fund, which is co-extensive with 

 the Universe itself. 



6. We. must not suppose that the sun and stars, which shine with 

 so much splendor, and which pour forth, from their fervid masses, an 

 ocean of fire into the abyss of space, which surrounds each, are the 

 sole fountains of heat. The former is indeed the great dispenser of the 



