256 Mr. Herapath on True Temperature, and the [Oct. 



Article III. 



Tables of Temperature, and a Mathematical Development of the 

 Causes and Laws of the Phenomena which have been adduced 

 in Support of the Hypotheses of " Calori/ic Capacity, Latent 

 Heat," &)C. By John Herapath, Esq. 



(Continued frovi p. 211.) 



When, to gratify my friend the Rev. Mr. Trimmer, I first 

 undertook to write the present paper, I intended to confine 

 myself to a simple development of the mathematical laws of the 

 phaenomena I had in view, and to close them with a few obser- 

 vations on the hypothesis of "Latent Heat;" an hypothesis 

 for the welfare of which the extent and soundness of this 

 gentleman's Newtonian views, will not allow him to have 

 that regard and solicitude which many philosophers have 

 so anxiously, and, perhaps, so laudably, displayed. Since 

 that period circumstances have occurred to induce me to inter- 

 rupt the series of propositions with a popular view of my ideas on 

 the changes of state, the nature of vapours, and the phaenomena 

 of evaporation. By this course I hope to avoid as much as 

 possible the charge of clouding philosophical views with mathe- 

 matical formula?. Unfortunately the shortness of the time since 

 this interruption has appeared necessary, has put it out of my 

 power to make those extensive researches requisite to complete 

 my theories, or even to give my ideas that elegance of arrange- 

 ment alike due to the dignity and the utility of the subject. For 

 any blemishes of this kind which may appear, I trust, with the 

 candid and liberal, I shall be entitled to some indulgence ; but 

 however much such imperfections may detract from the merit of 

 this part of the paper, and however great a portion of indulgence 

 I may on this account, in the opinion of some, stand in need of, 

 I hope it will not be discovered I have any reason to claim an 

 allowance for glaring errors, visionary views, unphilosophical 

 deductions, or palpable and unpardonable inconsistencies. 



Theory of the Causes of the Changes of State in Bodies, with an 

 hlucidation of some of the concomitant Phenomena. 



Whenever a body changes its state from a fluid to a solid, or 

 from a solid to a fluid, a new arrangement of the component par- 

 ticles, or atoms, generally takes place ; in the former case, there 

 is commonly a further aggregation of the atoms; and in the 

 latter, a division of the particles. How this aggregation or divi- 

 sion may be effected, and to what cause it may be owing, I have 

 briefly hinted in my late paper. If the primitive atoms of a body 

 were spherical, the body could never exist but in the fluid or 

 gaseous state ; no degree of cold however great could affect the 



