OF SIR CHARLES MORGAN. 537 



principle, they would be perfectly inert and 

 quiescent, for the plain reason that the volume, 

 elastic force, mobility, and chemical power of 

 all bodies are diminished by every reduction of 

 their temperature ; consequently, that caloric 

 does not consist in the vibratory motions of 

 ponderable matter, as supposed by Rumford, 

 Davy, Young, and others, nor in "the successive 

 polarization of its particles ;" but that it is the 

 cause of vibration, without which there could be 

 no sound, light, life, nor motion in the universe. 

 It is, therefore, chimerical to call in question the 

 materiality of the only agent in nature that is 

 omnipresent, as it is to speculate about its cause 

 or origin, unless we confine our inquiries to the 

 mode in which it unites with, and separates from 

 ponderable matter, or to the mechanical, chemical, 

 and vital effects it produces. 



Sir Charles Morgan observes, that " the mani- 

 fest connexion of living energy with temperature, 

 and with developement of the respiratory func- 

 tion, leads to an idea that heat is the specific 

 bond of connexion ;" but that " the ignorance in 

 which we are placed in regard to the nature and 

 origin of fire, fixes an obvious bar to the know- 

 ledge of the affections of organized beings by 

 that cause ;" and that " the influence of respira- 

 tion on life has yet to be sought ;" that " in 

 attempting to extend the limits of inquiry, the 

 map must be traced after the discoveries of a 



