Lesson xxix.] WATER. 195 



with a gentle heat, separable again from bodies it 

 had united with. And yet the same Water, as 

 little cohesive as it is, and as easily separated from 

 nu>st bodies, will cohere firmly with some others^ 

 and bind them together in the most solid masses : 

 as in the tempering of earth or ashes, clay or pow- 

 dered bones, with water, and then causing them to 

 be dried and burnt, when the masses become hard 

 as stones; though, without the Water, they would 

 have become mere dust or powder. Indeed, it 

 appears wonderful, that Water, which is an almost 

 universal dissolvent, should nevertheless be, in 

 many instances, a great coagulator. 



It has been imagined by some that Water is In- 

 compressible, and therefore non-elastic : but Mr. 

 Canton has proved, by accurate experiments, that 

 Water is actually compressed, even by the weight 

 of the atmosphere. Besides, the diminution of 

 size which Water suffers when it passes to a less 

 degree of heat, sufficiently shews that the par- 

 ticles of this fluid are, like those of all other 

 known substances, capable of approaching nearer 

 together. 



But the most remarkable property of Water is, 

 that which has been already spoken of in the 

 Twentieth Lesson : the discovery o which, as it ap- 

 pears to be one of the most curious and important 

 which modern times can boast of, I must again 

 recur to. For this discovery we are indebted to 

 Count Rumford; and it is given in his Essays. After 

 proving, in a very satisfactory way, that the par- 

 ticles of fluids are incapable of imparting heat to 

 K. 2 e&ch 



