310 Of the Propagation of Heat 



palpable proof of the wisdom of the Creator, and of the 

 special care he has taken in the general arrangement of 

 the universe to preserve animal life, than this wonderful 

 contrivance ; for though the extensiveness and immuta- 

 bility of the general laws of Nature impress our minds 

 with awe and reverence for the Creator of the universe, 

 yet exceptions to those laws, or particular modifications of 

 them, from which we are able to trace effects evidently 

 salutary or advantageous to ourselves and our fellow- 

 creatures, afford still more striking proofs of contrivance, 

 and ought certainly to awaken in us the most lively sen- 

 timents of admiration, love, and gratitude. 



Though in temperatures above blood-heat the expan- 

 sion of waterwith Heat is very considerable, yet in the 

 neighbourhood of the freezing point it is almost nothing. 

 And what is still more remarkable, as it is an exception to 

 one of the most general laws of Nature with which we 

 are acquainted, when in cooling it comes within eight or 

 nine degrees of Fahrenheit's scale of the freezing point, 

 instead of going on to be farther condensed as it loses 

 more of its Heat, it actually expands as it grows colder, 

 and continues to expand more and more as it is more 

 cooled. 



If the whole amount of the condensation of any given 

 quantity of boiling-hot water, on being cooled to the 

 point of freezing, be divided into any given number of 

 equal. parts, the condensations corresponding to equal 

 changes of temperature will be very unequal in different 

 temperatures. 



In cooling ii\ degrees of Fahrenheit's scale (or one- 

 eighth part of the interval between the boiling and the 

 freezing points) the condensation will be, 



