14 GENERAL LAWS OF CALORIC. 



actly in proportion to the amount of caloric obtained 

 by respiration, and combined with their tissues : 



6. That every variety of electricity is conver- 

 tible into caloric, and the latter again into electri- 

 city ; consequently, that they are modifications of 

 one and the same principle : 



7. That the directive power of the compass needle 

 diminishes from the isothermal equator to the points 

 of lowest mean temperature, which are the magnetic 

 poles ; and that all its variations correspond with 

 the variations of terrestrial temperature : 



8. That caloric is the active principle in light, 

 whether radiated from the sun, or generated by 

 ordinary combustion, friction, percussion, phos- 

 phorescence, or the electric discharge. 



That caloric is a self-active principle, might 

 naturally be inferred from the fact, that every 

 change in the temperature of bodies is attended 

 with motion among their particles. It has also 

 the power of moving from one place to another, 

 and even through the vacuum of an air pump, 

 without any projectile impulse from the particles 

 of ponderable matter; as when it radiates from 

 hot bodies. And that it 4 has the faculty of ge- 

 nerating motion among the particles of other 

 matter, would appear from all the phenomena 

 of nature with which we are best acquainted. 



For example, under the ordinary pressure of 

 the atmosphere, and at, or a little below the tem- 

 perature of 32, the particles of water exist in the 



