GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 279 



sical agent, the properties of which may be 

 ascertained by the various mechanical, chemical, 

 and physiological effects it produces that it 

 causes the aggregation and chemical union of 

 bodies, whether simple or compound, by virtue 

 of its attraction for ponderable matter, and not 

 by pressure, as supposed by Newton ; while it 

 causes evaporation, gasefaction, explosion, with 

 all the separations and expansions of matter by 

 virtue of its idio-repulsive power : 



7. That if the earth were wholly deprived of 

 caloric, it would become a stupid mass of inert 

 and chaotic matter, without form, and void of all 

 power of attraction and repulsion, of solidity, 

 fluidity, &c. 



8. That the total extinction of the solar fluid, 

 (if such a thing were possible,) would mark the 

 reign of everlasting stillness and death that the 

 same aethereal principle which lights up the uni- 

 verse with radiant glory, directs the planets 

 through their orbits, and preserves them in a 

 state of perpetual motion, circulation, and reno- 

 vation : finally, that caloric is the first of second 

 causes. 



