284 Inquiries concerning the Mode of the 



Three experiments were made with this apparatus, 

 and always with exactly the same results. In the first, 

 a stream of boiling water was poured into the funnel 

 during 10 minutes ; in the second, during 12 minutes; 

 and in the third, during 15 minutes. 



The thermometer, whose bulb was in the wooden cup, 

 remained at perfect rest from the beginning of the experi- 

 ment to the end of it without showing the slightest sign 

 of being in any way affected by the hot water which was 

 so near it. 



These experiments were made at Munich in the month 

 of July, 1805 ; the temperature of the air and of the 

 water contained in the vessel K L being 70 Fahrenheit. 



A small thermometer placed in the water contained in 

 the annular vessel H I, in such a manner that its bulb 

 was scarcely submerged,, marked that this water had 

 received a little heat in each of the three experiments. 



Another similar thermometer placed in the water con- 

 tained in the large vessel K L, immediately under its 

 surface and near one side of the vessel, showed that this 

 water had not acquired any sensible increase of temper- 

 ature during the experiments. 



From the results of these experiments we are au- 

 thorized to conclude, that heat does not descend in 

 water to a sensible distance, in cases where the particles 

 of the liquid which receive heat are exposed to be dis- 

 placed and forced upwards by the surrounding colder 

 and denser particles, that is to say, in all the cases (and 

 they are the most common) where heat is applied to the 

 strata of the liquid situated under its surface. 



But the results of the experiments in question do not 

 prove that heat cannot in any case descend in water; and 

 still less can it be inferred from them, that all direct com- 



