1821.] Causes of Calorific Capacity, Latent Heat, fyc. 2H 



mention a circumstance which seems to confirm our general 

 conclusion, though it must be confessed that the fundamental 

 experiment was of too delicate a nature to elicit an implicit con- 

 fidence. Crawford found that the " capacities " of equal 

 weights of oxygen and hydrogen have a ratio of about 1 to 4-5. 

 By our theory, the numeratoms of oxygen and hydrogen on the 

 supposition of their homogeneity are (p. 403 of the last volume 

 of the Annals) as 4 to 1 ; and, therefore, the numbers of atoms, 

 or Crawford's capacities of equal weights, are as I to 4. From 

 the near agreement of these ratios, we should be led to infer, 

 that oxygen and hydrogen are homogeneous gases ; and if they 

 are, the experiment and theory may be esteemed a mutual con- 

 firmation of each other. A similar confirmation of the general 

 truth of our theory may be found in some of the other gases ; 

 but until some more unexceptionable experiments on the 

 " capacity " of the gases are obtained, it will be useless to pur- 

 sue a numerical comparison. One thing, perhaps, the attentive 

 reader will observe in these deductions very opposite to what I 

 anticipated in p. 403 of the last volume of the Annals, namely, 

 that if the experiments can be correctly made, we may, by direct 

 experiments, ascertain the relative number of particles in anv 

 two gases ; for the proportion of the rt capacities " applied to 

 our temperature, will give the proportion of the numeratoms of 

 equal weights whether the gases be homogeneous or not. 



Having extended our theory of the mixture of bodies which 

 do not act chemically on each other as far as I think it needful, 

 it may be expected that I should enter into a critical investiga- 

 tion of the accuracy of the doctrine of " capacities," and show 

 the experiments by which it may be directly refuted. Such 

 things are by no means difficult to do, but as at the end of this 

 paper I have some idea of examining the soundness of our pre- 

 sent doctrine of" Latent Heat," I shall reserve any observations 

 I may have to offer until then ; and, if it should appear neces- 

 sary, put them out together. 



I might now extend my inquiries to the mixtures, numeratoms, 

 &c. of three and more bodies ; but as these things easily flow 

 from what has been said of two bodies, it would be more an 

 object of curiosity than utility to carry the investigations any 

 further. Before I attempt to draw the attention of philosophers 

 to the simplicity and fecundity of this theory, I shall proceed to 

 a development of the phasnomena attributed to the celebrated 

 doctrine of '* Latent Heat." 



{To he continued.) 



p2 



