VAST FORCE OF THIS ATTRACTION. 245 



of lime, together with the oily and resinous 

 portions of wood, which are but slightly soluble 

 in boiling water. 



Caloric enables water to combine with salts 

 and the various ingredients of organic com- 

 pounds, for the same reason that it enables 

 wood, coal, and all other combustibles, including 

 the metals, to attract oxygen from the atmos- 

 phereor for the same reason that it enables 

 melted metals to dissolve and unite with solid 

 metals. 



All solutions of salts in water, or metals in 

 acids, are the results of an attraction between 

 the solvent and the solvend. But if this at- 

 traction augments with every addition of ca- 

 loric, it cannot be an inherent property of the 

 menstruum.* 



* Nothing could more strikingly illustrate the immense aggre- 

 gate force of chemical attraction than the phenomena of solution. 

 For example, it is well known that when sugar or salts are dis- 

 solved in water, and metals in acids, the liquids undergo very 

 little augmentation of volume consequently, their density must 

 be greatly increased. But it is evident from the experiments of 

 Perkins, that a mechanical pressure equal to 2000 atmospheres, 

 is not capable of reducing the volume of water more than -^th, 

 if so much. What then must be the force of attraction by which 

 salts and metals are united during the process of chemical solu- 

 tion ? By attracting from the liquids a portion of their caloric, 

 the solids are dissolved, or chemically united, with diminution of 

 volume, for the same reason that the bulk and elastic force of 

 gases are lessened on combining chemically. 



