1^4 Chemical Philosophy. 



Magellan, Lavoisier, and De la Place, are 

 important, and have contributed not a little to the 

 progress of chemical knowledge. The power of 

 heat to expand difil^rent bodies has been investi- 

 gated during this period, and received more satis- 

 factory illustration than ever before, by many phi- 

 losophers, particularly by De Luc, Kir wan, Dlt 

 ^'^ERNOIS, Rinman, and Smeaton. The experi- 

 ments made, within a few years past, on the 

 power of different mixtures to produce cold, or, in 

 Other words, to reduce heat to a latent state, are 

 instructive and interesting. The inquiries respect- 

 ing the power of different bodies to conduct heaty 

 by Incenhouz,' Sennebier,^ Count Rumford,'' 

 and others, form important steps in investigating 

 the nature and properties of this fluid. And, finally, 

 the experiments of Lambert, Scheele, Pictet, 

 and Count Rumford, on radiant heat, and those 

 of Dr. Herschel, show^ing the different refrangi- 

 hilities of the rays of heat, as well as of light, and 

 the ^^i^tXQUi temperatures of the latter," may all be 

 considered as very valuable additions to the science 

 of chemistry. 



The inquiries of modern chemists into the na- 

 ture and properties of light have been scarcely less 

 n-umerous and interesting. Those discoveries re- 

 specting this substance which fall under the science 

 of optics, have been mentioned in another place. 

 The capacity of other bodies to receive light, to 



s Journal de Plyj'tque^ 1 7 89, p. 68. 



t Jbid. 1788. 



•u Rumford's Essays, and Philosophical Transactions for 179^* This 

 great practical philosopher is an American. He was born in the State of 

 Massachusetts, and left his native country a short time before the close of 

 the revolutionary war. Finding in Europe favourable opportunities for 

 cultivating and displaying that genius which had begun to manifest itself 

 in his native land, he has done equal honour to himself, and to the country 

 which gave him birth, by devoting this genius to such inquiries as have a 

 tendency to promote the welfare and happiness of man. 



u Philosopbifal Transactions fof 1800, 



