HEAT A CONSEQUENCE OXYDATING POWER OF RED RAY. 15 



COMPOUND, to which I shall presently refer, under the head of 

 Solids. And the black shades which appear to striate the 

 several parts of the spectrum, may prove to he the appropriate 

 condition for the formation of carbon, and also may account for 

 the calorific rays, as it may yet appear that such a condition of 

 the rays, not being in the proper state to produce perfect 

 WHITE light, may exert on the medium through which they 

 pass, an energy of action so intense as to afford the sensation 

 of caloric by the motion and expansion of its particles ; I have 

 therefore ventured the opinion, that heat is but a consequence, 

 and not a distinct matter, and that such is the more evident by 

 the resolution of bodies of greater fixity into radiant matter or 

 light, as from the moment that light is rendered perfect, the 

 sensation of heat which arose from the energy of combination 

 totally ceases. 



The red ray, as already proved by Sir H. Davy, possesses 

 oxydating (oxyginating) and acidifying powers. 



By the action of artificial or terrestrial light, the oxydation of 

 metals is produced, and the oxides resulting exhibit, in a variety 

 of instances, a red color where the oxygen is in maximum. 



A mixture of chlorine and hydrogen acted more rapidly on 

 each other, combining without explosion, when exposed to the 

 red rays than when placed in the violet rays, but a solution of 

 chlorine in water became solution of muriatic acid most rapidly 

 when placed in the most refrangible rays of the spectrum. 



Puce-colored, oxide of lead, when moistened gradually ac- 

 quired a tint of red in the least refrangible rays, and at last be- 

 came black ; but was not affected in the most refrangible rays. 



The oxide of mercury became red in the red ray, which must 

 have depended on its absorbing oxygen. 



The violet ray produced upon moistened red oxide of mer- 

 cury the same effect as hydrogen gas. Davy's Elements of 

 Chemical Philosophy, page 212. 



The oxydizing power of the red ray effects the combination 

 without explosion of the chlorine and hydrogen, (M. Gay 



