in Fluids, 243 



accidentj deeper with the spoon the second time, this 

 second spoonful burnt my mouth.* This accident re- 

 called very forcibly to my mind the recollection of the 

 hot apples and almonds with which I had so often burned 

 my mouth a dozen years before in England; but even 

 this, though it surprised me very much, was not suffi- 

 cient to open my eyes, and to remove my prejudices re- 

 specting the conducting power of water. 



Being at Naples in the beginning of the year 1794, 

 among the many natural curiosities which attracted my 

 attention, I was much struck with several very interest- 

 ing phasnomena which the hot baths of Baiae presented 

 to my observation, and among them there was one which 

 quite astonished me : standing on the sea-shore near the 

 baths, where the hot steam was issuing out of every crev- 

 ice of the rocks, and even rising up out of the ground, 

 I had the curiosity to put my hand into the water. As 

 the waves which came in from the sea followed each other 

 without intermission, and broke over the even surface 

 of the beach, I was not surprised to find the water cold ; 

 but I was more than surprised, when, on running the 

 ends of my fingers through the cold water into the sand, 

 I found the heat so intolerable that I was obliged in- 

 stantly to remove my hand. The sand was perfectly 

 wet, and yet the temperature was so very different at the 

 small distance of two or three inches ! I could not re- 

 concile this with the supposed great conducting power 

 of water. I even found that the top of the sand was, 

 to all appearance, quite as cold as the water which flowed 

 over it, and this increased my astonishment still more. 

 I then, for the first time, began to doubt of the conduct- 



* It is probable that the stove happened to be nearly cold when the bowl was set 

 down upon it, and that the soup had grown almost cold ; when a fresh quantity of 

 fuel being put into the stove, the Heat had been suddenly increased. 



