Life of Count Rumford. 471 



With these preliminary avowals the Count continues 

 the rehearsal of his experiments to prove of other fluids 

 what he had proved of water as a non-conductor of heat. 

 He describes the instruments and the processes by 

 which he verified the fact as regards oil, and even mercury, 

 which is a metal in fusion, and, inferring the same of all 

 fluids, he concludes " that the property of a non-conductor 

 is even essential to fluidity" .The discovery of so im- 

 portant a truth, he argues, must necessarily change 

 some of our ideas in respect to the mechanical opera- 

 tions in many of the great phenomena of nature, as well 

 as in many still more interesting chemical operations, 

 " which we are able to direct, but which we find, alas ! 

 very difficult to explain." 



In his paper on Heat, published in the Philosophical 

 Transactions before referred to, he had turned his dis- 

 covery of the non-conducting power of air to account- 

 ing; for the warmth of the hair of beasts, of the feath- 



o * 



ers of birds, of artificial clothing, and of snow, the 

 winter garment of the earth, and also to explaining the 

 causes of the coldness and the directions of the winds. 

 Also in his Essay on the Management of Heat and the 

 Economy of Fuel, he had turned the non-conducting 

 power of steam and of flame to the explanation of the 

 action of the blow-pipe, and to improvements in the 

 construction of boilers. He now proceeds to apply 

 his discoveries to chemistry, vegetation, and the animal 

 economy. "Perhaps," he says, "it will be found that 

 every change of form in every kind of substance is 

 owing to Heat." We must refer the reader to the 

 Essay itself if he would be informed of the interesting 

 facts, and the curious and often bold speculations, 

 sometimes a little beyond his province, which the 



