te iced Abbe ees 
Nature of Calorie. 355 
distinguished chemists, were I called on to name the two who 
have" rea in the best manner respecting chemical phe- 
nomena, 1 should say they are Lavoisier and Davy. Both 
of these t men may h ti d ly 3 
but still they have displayed consummate skill in deducing - 
correct conclusions from their premises. 
I have aimed to show that our reasonings in chemistry, 
consist in pointing out the accordance of individual phenome- 
na with some one of the established laws of attraction, heat, 
light or electricity, which powers are therefore denominated 
the ultimate causes of all chemical phenomena. Indeed, in- 
whether chemical or mechanical. For, let us take any effect 
that is produced, in the wide field of inanimate nature, and 
to attraction, heat and light. The leaves fall by the force of 
gravitation ; the boughs wave by the action of the wind, 
which is put in motion by heat; and the colour of the foliage 
what is it but a modification of light ? The few attempts 
which have been made to- go one step further back, in order 
to learn what is the nature of these agents themselves, have, 
for the most part, proved unsuccessful. In chemistry, this 
i i iality of heat, is 
whether the question respecting the materiality of : 
4 disproved. It is a. high 
un 
ed a series ttenuatec 
regular gradations to hydrogen, which is fourteen times 
lighter than air. Shall we suppose that nature stops pre- 
