454 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 



other solids, like ordinary caloric, as may be 

 daily witnessed at the Adelaide Gallery in Lon- 

 don. 



From a general review of the foregoing chap- 

 ters, the following conclusions have been de- 

 duced : 



1 . That the latent caloric of aqueous vapour is 

 the true and only basis of lightning : 



2. That the latent caloric of liquids is the basis 

 of voltaic electricity in all its various forms : 



3. That they are both governed by the same 

 universal law of attraction for ponderable matter, 

 and repulsion of their own particles : 



4. That the essential properties of positive and 

 negative electricity are the same under all cir- 

 cumstances : 



5. That when metals are made red hot by 

 electricity, whether it be disengaged from a gal- 

 vanic battery, a common machine, or from a 

 magnet, it immediately loses its peculiar power 

 of darting through conductors and producing a 

 shock, being transformed into caloric, when it 

 excites the sensation of heat, and converts solids 

 into liquids, vapours, and gases, which present 

 the same properties as if generated by the action 

 of ordinary caloric : 



6. That if caloric and electricity be not modi- 

 fications of one power, and the cause of all me- 

 chanical and chemical action, the whole of mo- 

 dern science is a perfect chaos of contradictions. 



