112 SENSATION AND TTS OBJECTS, 



Instead of supposing that the quality of mat- 

 ter by which the sensation of cold is produced 

 is as absolute as the quality of matter by which, 

 the sensation of heat is excited, it is, on the con- 

 trary, universally affirmed and believed, that 

 cold is a negative, not a positive property. 

 During the winter season, when we behold 

 fluids converted into a solid form ; water be- 

 come ice ; vegetation suspended ; animation of- 

 ten rendered torpid and destroyed by mortifi- 

 cation; although these effects are produced 

 by that modification of matter called cold, it 

 may, perhaps, appear somewhat strange to men 

 of common feelings, who possess common sense, 

 that the actual existence of the matter which ex- 

 cites cold, instead of being admitted, should be 

 denied by all the most enlightened chemists and 

 experimental philosophers, as they call them- 

 selves, of the present day; and that none but 

 ignorant fools, if any there are so foolish, dare 

 to think otherwise. It is also maintained, that 

 the effects which are produced in the polar re- 

 gions, as well as in other countries during the 

 winter, do not proceed from the matter of cold, 

 but that they arise from the privation of heat ; 

 as if snow or ice applied to bodies in whjch 

 those effects take place, have not an actual ex- 

 istence, as much as a flame of fire by the im- 

 pressions from which the sensation of heat is 

 etxcited, and combustion produced. 



