110 EXTREME COLD ARTIFICIALLY PRODUCED. 



manner, with those of Mr. Grove and Dr. Robinson; 

 and they teach us that but a very slight alteration in the 

 proportions of the calorific principle given to this planet 

 would completely change the character of every material 

 substance of which it is composed, unless there was an 

 alteration in the physical condition of the elements 

 themselves. 



Supposing the ordeal of fiery purification to take 

 place upon this earth, these experiments appear to indi- 

 cate the mighty changes which would thence result. 

 There would be no annihilation, but everything would 

 be transformed from the centre of the globe to the verge 

 of its atmosphere old things would pass away, all 

 things become new, and the beautiful mythos of the 

 phoenix be realized in the fresh creation. 



The deductions to be drawn from the results obtained 

 by abstracting heat from bodies are equally instructive. 

 By taking advantage of the cooling produced by the 

 rapid solution of salts of several kinds in water, an 

 intense degree of coldness may be produced.* Indeed, 

 the absorption of heat by liquefaction may be shown by 

 the use of metallic bodies alone. If lead, tin, and 

 bismuth, are melted together, and reduced to a coarse 

 powder by being poured into water, and the alloy then 

 dissolved in a large quantity of quicksilver, the thermo- 

 meter will sink nearly 50 degrees. An intense amount 

 of cold will result from the mixture of muriate of lime 

 and snow, by which a temperature of 50 below the zero 

 of Fahrenheit, or 82 below the freezing point of water, 

 is produced. By such a freezing mixture as this, 



* The theory of freezing mixtures is deduced from the doctrine 

 of latent caloric. These are mixtures of saline substances which, 

 at the common temperature, by their mutual chemical action, pass 

 rapidly into the fluid form, or are capable of being rapidly 

 dissolved in water, and, by this quick transition to fluidity, absorb 

 caloric, and produce degrees of cold more, or less intense. Rev. 

 Francis Lunn, On Heat : Encyclopaedia Metropolitan a. 



