[ 3 
XXI. An Account of fome Experiments on the Lofs of IV eight in 
Bodies on being melted or heated. In a Letter from George 
Fordyce, M.D . F.R.S. to Sir Jofeph Banks, Bart. P.R.S. 
Read April 28, 1785. 
§ U, 
A LTHOUGH I have made many experiments- on the 
fubjeCt of the lofs of weight in bodies on being melted, 
or heated, I do not think it worth while to lay them all before 
the Society, as there has not appeared any circumftance of 
contradiction in them. I {hall content myfelf with relating the 
following one, which appears to me conclufive in determining 
the lofs of weight in ice when thawed into water, and fubjefit 
to the leaft fallacy of any I have hitherto made, in {hewing the 
lofs of weight in ice on being heated. 
The beam I made ufe of was fo adjufted as that, with a 
weight between four and five ounces in each fcale, part 
of a grain made a difference of one divifion on the index. It 
was placed in a room, the heat of which was 37 degrees of: 
Fahrenheit’s thermometer, between one and two in the after- 
noon, and left till the whole apparatus and the brafs weights 
acquired the fame temperature. 
A glafs globe, of three inches diameter nearly, with an 
indentation at the bottom, and a tube at the top, weigh- 
ing about 451 grains, had about 1 700 grains of New- River 
water poured into it, and was hermetically fealed, fo that the 
B b b 2 whole, 
