228 CALORIC THE UNIVERSAL SOLVENT. 



That caloric is the universal solvent of nature 

 is evident from the fact, that all solid bodies are 

 convertible into liquids and gases or vapours, by 

 a sufficiently high temperature, and reconverted 

 into solids by its abstraction. It is equally clear, 

 that if caloric be the cause of all liquidity, 

 vaporization and gasefaction, it must be the men- 

 struum by which liquids and elastic fluids are 

 enabled to dissolve other bodies. 



The most remarkable facts connected with 

 solution, may be reduced to the following propo- 

 sitions: 



1. That all fluids are chemical combinations 

 of caloric with ponderable matter. Water is 

 composed of oxygen, hydrogen, and caloric ; 

 sulphuric acid of oxygen, sulphur, and caloric, 

 and so of other liquids, the elements of which 

 are chemically combined with it in definite pro- 

 portions : 



2. That no solution of a solid in a fluid ever 

 takes place, without a transition of caloric from 

 the solvent to the solvend : 



3. That the solvent power of water and other 

 menstruums is exalted by caloric, and dimi- 

 nished by its abstraction : 



4. That the solutions of animal, vegetable, and 

 mineral substances in water and other fluids, are 

 strictly chemical combinations. 



It therefore follows according to the most 

 rigid principles of logic, that if caloric be the 

 cause of solution, it must also be the physical 



