Modern Science : A Criticism 



the work done by any quantity of water falling 

 there a distance of 772 feet is capable of raising 

 that water one degree Fahrenheit.^ Here seemed 

 something definite. To measure temperature by 

 mass and velocity, to measure a degree by the 

 flight of a stone, or the heat in the human body 

 by the fall of a factory chimney — if rather round- 

 about and elusive of the main question — seemed 

 at any rate promising of exact results 1 Unfortu- 

 nately the difficulty was to pass from the theory 

 to its application. The complicated nature of 

 the problem, the " imperfection " of the gases 

 and other bodies under consideration, the latent 

 and specific heats to be allowed for, the elusive 

 nature of heat in experiment, and the variable 

 value of the degree itself — all render the con- 

 clusions on this subject most precarious ; and the 

 general equations connecting the Fahrenheit or 

 other temperatures with a thermo-dynamic scale 

 — while they become so unwieldy as to be practi- 

 cally useless — are themselves after all only approxi- 

 mate. 



Finally, to give a last form to the mechanical 

 theory of heat, the conception of flying atoms or 

 molecules was introduced, and a number of neat 

 generalisations were deduced from dynamical 

 considerations. Of course it was inevitable, having 

 once started with a mechanical theory, that one 

 should arrive at the Atom some time or other — 

 and (from what has already been said) it was also 



I A statement obviously applying — from what has been already 

 said — at only one point in the scale. 



113 H 



