RATIONALE OF COHESION. 175 



cavities. Were it not for this, the volume of ice 

 and other crystalline bodies, would diminish on 

 assuming the solid form. That the volume of 

 ice is actually reduced, and its cohesion greatly 

 augmented by the abstraction of caloric, is 

 evident from the large fissures found in bodies 

 of ice after an excessive freeze in rigorous cli- 

 mates, and from the rocky firmness which it 

 exhibits. Were it possible to reduce the tem- 

 perature of ice 1000, its attraction for caloric 

 would be immense, with a corresponding aug- 

 mentation of its density and cohesion. 



If the atoms of gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, 

 tin, and other metals, be surrounded with caloric 

 alone, and if it have a definite degree of attraction 

 for each, it must hold them together with a 

 corresponding force of cohesion, for the obvious 

 reason, that " nothing can act where nothing is." 

 Or if the atoms of oxygen, hydrogen, and 

 carbon, of vegetable matter be surrounded with 

 caloric, and nothing else, it must be the cause 

 of their contraction and expansion, of their 

 chemical union and decomposition, unless the 

 atoms be endowed with inherent powers of at- 

 traction and repulsion which is hypothetical 

 and contrary to all analogy. 



If it be maintained, that electricity is a con- 

 stituent of all bodies, I answer, that latent elec- 

 tricity, as it exists in a state of combination with 

 the particles of ponderable matter is identical 



