$42 REFRIGERATION. 



instead of examining the various causes, iby 

 the operation of which different substances ac^ 

 quire different properties; in consequence of 

 new 'combinations wlich take place between 

 them ; how aether is volatilised into vapor, and 

 ivater consolidated into ice and snow, by means 

 of which these bodies have the wower of excit- 



i. 



ing the sensation of cold in animated beings in 

 general : chemists have come to the unanimous 

 -resolution of considering cold as a non-entity; 

 dependent altogether on the privation of fire, or 

 caloric. I would, however, put it to the feeU 

 ings of these gentlemen, whether snow or ice* 

 applied to bodies in which those sensations are 

 produced, have not an actual existence, as much 

 as those which proceed from a flame of fire by 

 which the sensation of heat is excited : not by 

 the abstraction alone of fire or caloric from the 

 body, but by the palpable application of ice to 

 it. I would ask, whether the effects which are 

 produced during the winter in the polar regions 

 as well as in other countries, where we behold 

 liquids converted into a solid form, water be- 

 come ice, vegetation suspended, animation 

 rendered torpid, and both by mortification 

 decomposed and destroyed : I would ask, whe- 

 ther it be not reasonable to conclude^ that these 

 effects have been produced by the new modifica- 

 tion of matter that has taken place: and whether 

 it must not appear somewhat strange to men of 



