CHEMICAL ATTRACTION. 203 



Joric was a mere effect," instead of being an all- 

 pervading and sufficient cause of motion, his 

 own experiments would have led him to per- 

 ceive that caloric and electricity are mutually 

 convertible into each other; for he was among 

 the first to demonstrate that electricity is capable 

 of producing the same effects which are usually 

 ascribed to caloric. By means of a wire, con- 

 nected with the poles of a battery, he caused 

 water and other liquids to boil. 



1. Let us examine briefly some of the conse- 

 quences which flow from the hypothesis that 

 caloric results from the combination of two elec- 

 tric fluids, admitting for the present, (what has 

 never been established,) that electricity consists 

 of two mutually attractive fluids. 



The hypothesis assumes in the first place, 

 that all the elements of ponderable matter are 

 reducible to two classes, one of which is united 

 with positive, and the other with negative elec- 

 tricity, the mutual attraction and combination 

 of which, produce the phenomena of heat, and 

 the chemical union of bodies. But it is self- 

 evident, that if heat result from the union of 

 two electric fluids, all simple bodies must be 

 without caloric, until they unite chemically, 

 which is contrary to matter of fact ; for it has 

 been demonstrated in the preceding part of this 

 work, that all bodies are composed of caloric and 

 ponderable matter a fact which cannot be pre- 



