BOOK JI.] ArilOIlISMS. 4C5 



Here, too, we must make a more diligent inquiry ; for i^uick 

 lime, when sprinkled with water, appears to conceive heat, either 

 from its beings collected into one point (as we observed of herbs 

 when confined), or from the irritation and exasperation of the 

 fiery spirit by water, which occasions a conflict and struggle. 

 The true reason will more readily be shown if oil be used instead 

 of water, for oil will equally tend, to collect the confined spirit, 

 but not to irritate. The experiment may be made more general, 

 both by using the ashes and calcined products of difierent bodies 

 and by pouring difierent liquids upon them. 



A negative instance may be subjoined of other metals which 

 are more soft and soluble ; for leaf gold dissolved by aqua regia, 

 or lead by aqua fortis, are not warm to the touch whilst dis- 

 solving, no more is quicksilver (as far as I remember), but silver 

 excites a slight heat, aud so does copper, and tin yet more 

 plainly, and most of all iron and steel, which excite not only a 

 powerful heat, but a violent bubbling. The heat, therefore, 

 appears to be occasioned by the struggle which takes place when 

 these strong dissolvents penetrate, dig into, and tear asunder 

 the parts of those substances, whilst the substances themselves 

 resist. When, however, the subatances yield more easily, scarcely 

 any heat is excited. 



There is no negative instance with regard to the heat of ani- 

 mals, except in insects (as has been observed), owing to their 

 small size ; for in fishes, as compared with land animals, a lower 

 degree rather than a deprivation of heat is observable. In plants 

 and vegetables, both as to their exudations and pith when freshly 

 exposed, there is no sensible degree of heat. But in animals 

 there is a great difference in the degree, both in particular parts 

 (for the heat varies near the heart, tlie brain, and the extre- 

 mities) and in tlie circumstances in which they are placed, such 

 as violent exercise and fevers. 



Here, again, there is scarcely a negative instance. I might 

 add that the excrements of animals, even when they are no 

 longer fresh, possess evidently some effective heat, as is shown 

 by their enriching the soil. 



Such liquids (whether oily or watery) as are intensely acrid 

 exhibit the effects of heat, by the separation and burning of 

 bodies after some little action upon them, yet they are not at 

 iirst warm to the touch, but they act according to their affinity 

 and the pores of the substances to which they are applied ; for 

 aqua regia dissolves gold but not silver, — on the contrary, aqua 

 fortis dissolves silver but not gold ; neither of them dissolves 

 glass, and so of the rest. 



Let spirits of wine be tried on wood, or butter, wax, or pitch, 

 to see if this \a ill melt them at all by their heat ; for the twenty, 

 fourth instance shows that they possess properties regcmblina 

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