On Chemical Philosophy. BB 
solution of a substance in caloric, with this difference, that the 
steam is separable from its solvent caloric at a temperature be- 
low 212°, and, of eourse, at the cammon temperature of our at- 
mosphere. To prove that this is the difference between the 
permanent gases and vapour, I need only mention the fact, 
“* that steam does not scald so much from high pressure as from 
low pressure :” this seems d@ priort contrary to our expectations 5 
but it isa fact, that however high the temperature is raised above 
212°, it will not scald or burn more than common atmospheric 
air heated to the same temperature, because the active energies 
of this power are occupied or suspended by the water held in 
solution. It is in fact air: but the moment it is liberated and 
lets go the water, then its energies are not suspended, but.un- 
occupied ; it instantly becomes free caloric, or caloric of tem- 
perature, and scalds or burns, of passes with all its energies into 
some other substance, producing its changes and effects upon it 
according to its quantity and intensity, and the nature of such 
substance; and as this separation more readily takes place at a 
low than at a high pressure (temperature), the one must scald 
or burn sooner than the other. In making the different gases 
by heat, we find the pipes in the first instance burning hot, and 
afterwards becoming comparatively cool, because the first thing 
which is driven off is steam ; which being abstracted by the tem- 
perature of the surrounding medium, is set at liberty to act on 
the pipes, or any thing else that comes in its way; but when the 
permanent gases come over, which are not so separable, but re- 
quire that we should have recourse to elective attraction to se- 
parate them, this same heat then becomes latent, and the pipes 
cool, and in this latent state carry the heat and flame in any di- 
rection we choose. When, however, as in carburetied hydrogen 
gas, it is made to unite with oxygen, this heat, together with 
“that which holds the oxygen in solution, is liberated, and produces 
heat and flame. Thus, while some have said, heat and flame are 
from oxygen, others have said they are from hydrogen. I say 
they are from both. And how often do we find truth differing 
from and agreeing with all parties ! 
The fact is, the gases are formed by the solution of substances 
in this caloric, exactly on the same principle, only more at- 
tenuated, as ice is melted by heat, and forms water; and conse- 
quently when they change their form of existence, they give up 
this power, and when on some concentrated point, .as is always 
the case when separated by elective attraction, heat and flame 
appear. 
Had it not been for the impressions which the doctrine of 
attraction and repulsion had made on the mind, it would, I am 
persuaded, have been quite natural for the chemists of the time 
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