OF DIFFERENT BODIES. 75 



combined with them, and has been generally 

 termed specific heat. But it is now universally 

 conceded, that the whole subject is involved in 

 profound obscurity, and that nearly all the ex- 

 periments connected with specific heat, are at 

 variance with each other ; which alone is a suf- 

 ficient proof that the truth has not yet been fully 

 ascertained. 



According to the above mode of deducing the 

 amount of caloric in bodies, water should contain 

 more caloric than an equal weight of any other 

 known liquid or solid, as it gives out a larger 

 quantity on cooling an equal number of degrees. 

 If capacity or specific heat were a true criterion of 

 what they contain, the latent caloric of aether, 

 alcohol, oils, wood, coal, and all those bodies 

 which are known to be the most combustible, 

 would be comparatively low; which is refuted by 

 all the phenomena of combustion. This ought to 

 have been inferred from the large proportions of 

 hydrogen that enter into the composition of such 

 substances, and from the well-known fact, that a 

 given weight of hydrogen gives out far more ca- 

 loric during combustion than any other known 

 body. Ever since the first discovery of hydrogen, 

 it has been regarded as an exceedingly igneous 

 substance. The older chemists termed it inflam- 

 mable air. At one time, Kirwin maintained that 

 it was identical with the phlogiston of Stahl, 

 which was in reality the undiscovered latent heat 

 of Black. 



