142 On the Measure of 
some strong objections against Mr. Smeaton’s 
conclusions. I would willingly excuse myself 
from venturing to controvert any thing in a 
criticism written with so much candour and 
ability; but some of the arguments it contains 
are. pressed so powerfully against the applica- 
tion of the square of the velocity of a body 
in motion as the measure of its force, that 
they must, I apprehend, be answered before 
that measure can be consistently defended. 
In the first place, it is argued, that the 
principle which Mr. Smeaton understood to be 
confirmed by the result of all his experiments, 
“is in fact abandoned by him at the very 
outset of ‘his investigation, in consequence of 
having included the time in the measure of the 
effect.”* Now, I do not see how this supposed 
contradiction in Mr. Smeaton’s reasoning can 
possibly be maintained. 'The measure of me- 
chanical power adopted by him, consists of the 
pressure multiplied into the space through 
which it acts. In cases where the pressure 
moves through equal spaces in equal times, it 
can make no difference whether the time or the 
space be taken as an element of the mechanical 
power ; and when, in such cases, Mr. Smeaton 
takes either of these, it does not follow that 
he abandons the other. 
* Edinb. Review, vol. 12, p. 123. 
