[ 120 3 
And we had in the heated room where our experiments 
were made, a ftriking though familiar inftance of the 
fame. All the pieces of metal there, even our watch- 
chains, felt fo hot, that we could fcarcely bear to touch 
them for a moment, whilft the air, from which the me- 
tal had derived all its heat, was only uii2:)leafant. The 
flownefs with which air communicates its heat was fur- 
ther fliewn, in a remarkable manner, by the thermome- 
ters we brought with us into the room, none of which 
at the end of twenty minutes, in the firft experiment, 
had acquired the real heat of the air by feveral degrees. 
. It might be fuppofed, that by an adlion fo very different 
from that to which we are accullomed, as deftroying a 
large quantity of heat, inhead of generating it, we muft 
have been greatly difordered. And indeed we experi- 
enced fome inconvenience ; our hands fliook very much, 
and we felt a confiderable degree of languor and debi- 
lity ; I had alfo a noife and giddinefs in my head. But it 
was only a fmall part of our bodies that exerted the power 
of deftroying heat with fuch a violent effort as feems ne- 
ceffary at firft fight. Our cloaths, contrived to guard us 
from cold, guarded us from the heat on the fame prin- 
ciples. Underneath we were furrounded Avith an atmo- 
BANKs and ! found that we could bear fplrits which had been confiderably heated 
and were now cooling, when the thermometer came to the 130th degree; cool- 
ing oil at 129° ; cooling water at 123° ; cooling quickfilver at 117°. And thefe 
points were pretty nicely determined ; fo that though we could bear water very 
well at 123“, we could not bear it at 125°, an experiment in which Dr. solan- 
DER joined us. And our feelings with relpe£l to all thefe points, feemed pretty 
exactly the l^e. 
fphere 
