CALORIC AND ELECTRICITY. 431 



contraction and expansion of gaseous bodies ; 

 combustion, solution, the production of winds, 

 rain, snow, dew, mists, and fogs, with all the 

 multitudinous phenomena of chemistry, geo- 

 logy, and physiology. It is, therefore, idle to 

 regard electricity as a primum mobile, or as an 

 universal principle of action. Besides, it has 

 been proved, that when solar caloric is greatly 

 accumulated in aqueous vapour, as in the tro- 

 pical regions, and during summer in the middle 

 latitudes, it is often disengaged suddenly in the 

 form of lightning, attended with rapid precipi- 

 tations of rain, or hail, and that, without the 

 caloric of aqueous vapour, there could be no 

 lightning ; consequently, that the sun is the great 

 fountain of atmospheric electricity. The truth 

 is, that if cold be regarded as only an abstraction 

 or diminution of caloric, it follows that tempera- 

 ture is an universal attribute of this principle ; 

 and I have shown that the attractive and repul- 

 sive powers of all bodies are modified by every 

 change of temperature which they undergo. It 

 is therefore evident, that caloric is not only far 

 more diffused throughout nature than electricity, 

 but that it is a permanent source of power, which 

 is perpetually attracting and repelling the atoms 

 of ponderable matter, and maintaining their soli- 

 dity as well as fluidity. 



I have shown that every form and variety of 

 voltaic electricity are the results of chemical 



