INFUSIONS MADE BY CALORIC. 235 



thoughts, he would not have added the follow- 

 ing sentence. " A menstruum dissolves other 

 bodies, merely because its attraction for them 

 brings their particles into union with the heat 

 which already exists in it." Why then should 

 water at 212 exert a stronger attraction for salts 

 than water at 32? Why should hot water 

 ascend through porous solids, and capillary 

 tubes more rapidly than cold water? Why 

 should boiling water dissolve 18 times more 

 nitrate of potass than ice-cold water? and 20 

 times more chlorate of potass? Why should 

 boiling water attract and dissolve, or combine 

 chemically with the aromatic constituents of 

 tea, coffee, and a thousand other vegetable pro- 

 ducts more rapidly than cold water, if caloric 

 be not an attractive agent ? or why are the che- 

 mical affinities of all bodies modified by every 

 addition and subtraction of caloric, if it be not 

 the ruling principle of action in all solutions? 



That caloric is the medium by which water 

 is enabled to combine chemically with salts, 

 will appear from another view of the subject. 

 For example, those salts which have the greatest 

 affinity for caloric, have also the strongest attrac- 

 tion for water. The consequence of which is, 

 that they absorb it from the atmosphere, produc- 

 ing what is termed their deliquescence and 

 when dissolved in water they absorb its caloric, 

 by which cold is produced. 



