24 THE CREATION OF MATTER 



inch, these figures multiplied by 10 23 . Wherever jars of 

 these substances can be obtained, wherever they exist, 

 each in like circumstances execute their motions with 

 like rapidity, making the same number of miles per 

 second, per minute, per day, per year, to the praise of the 

 hand that made those of the same kind so perfectly 

 alike, that meted out to them their properties in measure 

 so exact. 



All gases are acted on by heat in the same measure. 

 The average velocity is increased by it. The higher the 

 temperature, the greater the velocity; the lower the 

 temperature, the less the velocity. Could a gas be 

 cooled down to -273'72 C. or -462-696 F., its 

 molecules would be reduced to stillness. There would 

 be in them no motion, no energy, no heat. The 

 volume is also increased by heat. The measure of 

 enlargement has been determined. By every degree of 

 increase of heat a gas expands by ^^rd of its volume ; 

 or 273 cubic inches under an increment of 1 C. 

 becomes 274, of 10 283, of 27 300. An increase of 

 273 doubles the volume. Let the same volume of 

 hydrogen, oxygen, and chlorine, and any number of 

 gases, be subjected to the same increase of temperature, 

 to an increase of ten, twenty, fifty, or a hundred degrees, 

 all will keep the same pace in enlarging. Each will 

 increase, step by step, according to the heat increment, 

 and each step will exactly correspond, and the volumes 

 throughout will be of the same measure. The measure 

 is finer far than any to which man is equal. The steps 

 are more accurate than the tread of armies. Every 

 particle of all the gases knows the increased room to 

 demand, and, however little it may be, demands it. They 

 are in trillions, in septillions, or it may be in centillions ; 

 but so perfectly constituted are they, so entirely are they 



