OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 233 



t>0 from which, and the preceding facts, it 

 follows, that if the ocean were saturated with 

 salt and afterwards frozen, it would deposit a 

 stratum more than one-third its depth. 



It is likewise obvious, that the tropical ocean 

 must contain more salt in suspension than the 

 Polar seas, especially during winter, and in the 

 vicinity of icebergs, or other frozen masses.* 



If it be maintained that caloric is not the 

 solvent of sulphate of soda, lime, and magnesia, 

 because they are more soluble in water at 60 

 than at 212, the same mode of reasoning would 

 prove that caloric is not the solvent of sulphur, 

 which is well known to be perfectly liquid at 

 230 F., but becomes viscid at 300, and con- 

 tinues so up to 400. In reply to such objec- 

 tions, it may be stated in the first place, that 

 no chemical union ever takes place until one 

 at least of the combining bodies is reduced to 

 the fluid state, and that caloric is essential to 

 all fluidity : secondly, that the chemical force 

 by which water is enabled to dissolve and com- 

 bine with animal, vegetable, and mineral sub- 

 stances, is exalted by every addition of tem- 



* It can hardly be denied, that sugar is chemically combined 

 with cyder by the agency of caloric ; for it is well known that 

 during the congelation of sweet cyder, its sugar falls down, and 

 may be found at the bottom of the vessel which contains it, in the 

 state of a highly concentrated syrup. But if afterwards ex- 

 posed to warmth, it is again taken up and recombined with its 

 watery solvent, which thus acquires its original properties. 



