270 



Researches on some important Points 



direct experiments which we have made on the subject. We add 

 only a single remark ; that having compared the specific heats 

 thus obtained for the worst conductors with those given by the 

 method of mixture, or by the calorimeter, their agreement has 

 afforded the most convincing proof of the accuracy of our process. 

 We shall now present in a table the specific heat of several sim- 

 ple bodies, restricting ourselves to those results concerning which 

 we entertain no doubt. 



To render the law which we propose to make known intelli- 

 gible, we have, in the preceding table, joined to the specific heats 

 of the different bodies the relative weights of their atoms. These, 

 as is known, are deduced from the ratios observed between the 

 ■weights of the elementary substances tliat unite together. The 

 pains taken for some years past to determine the proportions of 

 most chemical compounds,leavebutslight uncertainties respecting 

 the data which we have employed; but as no precise method ex- 

 ists of discovering the real number of atoms of each kind which en- 

 ter into a combination, there must always be something arbitrary 

 in the choice of the specific weight of the elementary molecules : 

 this uncertainty, however, can only be in the choice of two or 

 three numbers which have the most simple relation to each other. 

 The reasons which have directed our choice will be understood 

 from what follows. There is none of the numbers on which we 

 have fixed which docs not agree with the best established che- 

 mical analogies. 



From the data contained in the preceding table we may now 

 easily calculate the ratio which exists between the capacity of 

 atoms of a different kind. In orcier to pass from the specific 



heats 



