4 An Inquiry concerning 



lace is made, to the arm of the balance to which the bottle 

 B was suspended, when I found that the bottle A had 

 augmented its weight by 3-5-9-^ part of its whole weight 

 at the beginning of the experiment ; the weight of the 

 bottle with its contents having been 4811.23 grains 

 Troy (the bottle weighing 703.37 grains, and the water 

 4107.86 grains), and it requiring now -jVVg- parts of a 

 grain, added to the opposite arm of the balance, to 

 counterbalance it. 



Having had occasion, just at this time, to write to my 

 friend, Sir Charles Blagden, upon another subject, I 

 added a postscript to my letter, giving him a short 

 account of this experiment, and telling him how " 'very 

 contrary to my expectation " the result of it had turned 

 out ; but I soon after found that I had been too hasty 

 in my communication. Sir Charles, in his answer to 

 my letter, expressed doubts respecting the fact ; but, 

 before his letter had reached me, I had learned from my 

 own experience how very dangerous it is in philosoph- 

 ical investigations to draw conclusions from single ex- 

 periments. 



Having removed the balance, with the two bottles 

 attached to it, from the cold into the warm room 

 (which still remained at the temperature of 61), the ice 

 in the bottle A gradually thawed ; and, being at length 

 totally reduced to water, and this water having acquired 

 the temperature of the surrounding air, the two bottles, 

 after being wiped perfectly clean and dry, were found to 

 weigh as at the beginning of the experiment, before the 

 water was frozen. 



This experiment, being repeated, gave nearly the same 

 result, the water appearing when frozen to be heavier 

 than in its fluid state; but some irregularity in the 



