on the Subject of Heat. 221 



Is it at all conceivable that such an enormous quan- 

 tity of caloric could really be present in this body ? But 

 even this supposition would be by no means sufficient 

 for the explanation of the fact in question, as I have 

 shown by a decisive experiment that the capacity of the 

 metal for heat has not sensibly altered. 



Whence, then, came the caloric which the apparatus 

 furnished in such abundance ? 



I leave this question to be answered by those persons 

 who believe in the actual existence of caloric. 



In my opinion, I have made it sufficiently evident 

 that it was impossible for it to come from the metallic 

 bodies which were rubbed together, and I am absolutely 

 unable to imagine how it can have come from any other 

 object in the neighbourhood of the apparatus, for all 

 these objects received their heat constantly from the 

 apparatus itself. 



I will now proceed to give an account of my further 

 investigations on the subject of Heat. 



In the summer of the year 1800, I visited Scotland, 

 and on this occasion spent some months in Edinburgh. 



It is well known that the University at that place 

 stands in high repute on account of the eminent scholars 

 occupying chairs there for more than fifty years in un- 

 interrupted succession. 



One day I found myself in the company of Professor 

 Hope (the successor of the celebrated Black), Professors 

 Playfair and Stewart, and several other persons. We 

 repeated the experiment which Pictet undertook with 

 a view to determine the condensation and contraction 



degrees, or to bring this number of pounds to the melting-point. From this calculation 

 it appears that a quantity of bell-metal, the temperature of which is at the melting- 

 point of ice, on being reduced by friction to the state of powder, gives out sixteen 

 times as much heat as would be necessary to melt it. 



