tefye&vftg Heat and Caloric. 77 



the compound fubftance before us ; or in the fum of the 

 inafles of t.vo or more fubftances over that of the compound 

 from which thev were feparated ? 



Again — When gafes pafs into the form of liquids, or li- 

 quids into the folid ftate, heat is found to pafs from them 

 into, the atmofphere, " the heat that was latent in them 

 before now becomes fenf.ble." Was it not cognifable be- 

 fore ? It ought not to have been fo when latent. I find, 

 however, that the volume of the body from which it has 

 been feparated is now lejs than before; and this is exactly 

 what ought to take place from the general laws, not only of 

 heat but of matter — a fubftance, heat, has been feparated from 

 a body in which it formed a part of the mafs or volume, 

 and the remaining mafs is diminifhed in bulk. 



Let us, however, alter the mode of expreffion. A body, 

 no matter by what means, is reduced into a Iefs vo- 

 lume; it is fo conftituted as to admit of this eflecl being 

 palTed upon it; for one of its inarcdients, heat, is a fubtile 

 fluid which may be diflodged ; nay, will even run out, when 

 the capacity of the body which held it is leffencd. It is 

 no way ftrange, in this cafe, that a fluid poured out of its 

 recipient, and which, by its tendency to equilibrium, muft 

 diffufe itfelf through the unrounding bodies in proportion to 

 their capacities to receive it, fhould make itfelf nranifeft to 

 our fenfe of feeling, we being immeried at the moment in 

 one of the neighbouring fubftances, the atmofphere, which 

 affords a lodging for a portion of the diflodged heat, and 

 ferves to tranfport other portions of it to all the neighbouring 

 bodies. Nor is it ftrange that a fubftance which, while it 

 formed an ingredient in the body from which it has been 

 removed, conftituted alfo a part of its volume, fhould, when it 

 paffes into another body, mercury in a glafs tube, caufe an 

 increafe in its volume proportioned to the quantity that has 

 pa fled in. 



It conftituted fenfible hulk in the firft body, and was latent 

 heat ; it conftitutes fcvjible bulk in the fecond body alfo, 

 but there it \sfenjibh beat! ! Is there no abfurdity in al! this ? 



Heat in thofe combinations, in which the term latent ia 

 employed, not cognifable by our fenfes ! Is it not obviorts 



from 



