On the Materiality of Caloric. 613 
10 times 146, or 1460°; and hence the natural 
zero is 1460 — 32 or 1428°. Now of this 
estimate it is a datum, that the capacities of ice 
and water have precisely the above ratio. But 
if the general formula, for ascertaining the spe- 
cific caloric of bodies, be founded on erroneous 
principles, it cannot serve as the groundwork 
of any solid conclusions. 
The materiality of caloric may, I apprehend, 
be maintained, without admitting that we have 
made any steps towards determining its quantity 
in bodies; and the arguments of Count Rum- 
ford and Mr. Davy are not demonstrative, be- 
Cause they assume, that this part of the doctrine 
of caloric cannot be relinquished, without aban- 
doning it im toto. I may be permitted, there- 
fore, to state my reasons for believing caloric to 
be matter; which would have been unnecessary, 
had the contrary been proved, with all the force 
of mathematical demonstration. 
Avoiding all metaphysical reasoning on the 
nature of matter, and assuming the generally 
received definition, as sufficiently characterizing 
it, I shall examine how far this general cha- 
racter of matter applies to the individual—calo- 
ric. Caloric occupies space or is extended, 
because it enlarges the dimensions of other 
bodies; and, for the same reason, it is impene-~ 
