SECTION NINTH. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY, WITH ANSWERS. 



Professor Olmstcd's Objections, with Replies. 



201. IN a public lecture, delivered by Professor Ohnsted 

 in Clinton Hall, New York, various objections were urged 

 against my theory, which I propose to answer, as briefly as 

 the nature of the subject will admit. 



After making some preliminary remarks, which were not 

 connected with the correctness or incorrectness of my the- 

 ory, the Professor proceeded to state, without controverting 

 some of the principal chemical laws on which my theory is 

 founded, for example, that about 1000 of latent caloric 

 are given out when vapor is condensed into water, whether 

 it is condensed in water or air; that if air is expanded by 

 diminished pressure, it became colder, and that to a great de- 

 gree, as he proved by the Chemnitz experiment, where air 

 is let out after being under great pressure, when it produces 

 a cold sufficient to freeze drops of water which were in it, 

 and of course to condense much of its vapor into water. 

 These principles, then, are acknowledged, and the quanti- 

 ties, as I state them, not denied. It is contended, however, 

 that "my deductions are neither conformable to the laws of 

 heat nor to the phenomena of nature." 



The Professor says that " the latent caloric, when evolved 

 during the formation of a cloud by the condensation of the 

 vapor, either stays where it is, or passes away into space 



