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a non-luminous source be polarized in the manner described, it ought to be transmitted and stopped by the interposed mica under the same circumstances under which polarized light would be transmitted or stopped. Professor Forbes found that this is really the case, whether he employed heat from luminous or nonluminous sources: and he had evidence, also, of circular and elliptical polarization of heat. It therefore follows, that if heat were visible, under similar circumstances we should see figures perfectly similar to those given in Note 213, and those following; and, as these figures are formed by the interference of undulations of light, it may be inferred that heat, like light, is propagated by undulations of the ethereal medium, which interfere under certain conditions, and produce figures analogous to those of light. It appears also, from Mr. Forbes's experiments, that the undulations of heat are longer than the undulations of light; and it has already been mentioned that Professor Draper considers them to be normal, like those of sound.

That light and heat are both vibrations of the ethereal medium is not the less true on account of the rays of heat being unseen, for the condition of visibility or invisibility may only depend upon the construction of our eyes, and not upon the nature of the motion which produces these sensations in us. The sense of seeing may be confined within certain limits. The chemical rays beyond the violet end of the spectrum may be too rapid, or not sufficiently excursive, in their vibrations, to be visible to the human eye; and the calorific rays beyond the other end of the spectrum may not be sufficiently rapid, or too extensive, in their undulations, to affect our optic nerves, though both may be visible to certain animals or insects. We are altogether ignorant of the perceptions which direct the carrier-pigeon to his home, or of those in the antennæ of insects which warn them of the approach of danger; nor can we understand the telescopic vision which directs the vulture to his prey before he himself is visible even as a speck in the heavens. So, likewise, beings may exist on earth, in the air, or in the waters, which hear sounds our ears are incapable of hearing, and which see rays of light and heat of which we are unconscious. Our perceptions and faculties are limited to a very small portion of that immense chain of existence which extends from the Creator to evanescence. The identity of action under similar circumstances is one of

the strongest arguments in favour of the common nature of the chemical, visible, and calorific rays. They are all capable of reflection from polished surfaces, of refraction through diaphanous substances, of polarization by reflection and by doubly refracting crystals; their velocity is prodigious; they may be concentrated and dispersed by convex and concave mirrors; they pass with equal facility through rock-salt and are capable of radiation ; and they are subject to the same law of interference with those of light: hence there can be no doubt that the whole assemblage of rays visible and invisible which constitute a solar beam are propagated by the undulations of the ethereal medium, and consequently as motions they come under the same laws of analysis.

When radiant heat falls upon a surface, part of it is reflected and part of it is absorbed; consequently, the best reflectors possess the least absorbing powers. The temperature of very transparent fluids is not raised by the passage of the sun's rays, because they do not absorb any of them; and, as his heat is very intense, transparent solids arrest a very small portion of it. The absorption of the sun's rays is the cause both of the colour and temperature of solid bodies. A black substance absorbs all the rays of light, and reflects none; and since it absorbs, at the same time, all the calorific rays, it becomes sooner warm, and rises to a higher temperature, than bodies of any other colour. Blue bodies come next to black in their power of absorption. And, since substances of a blue tint absorb all the other colours of the spectrum, they absorb by far the greatest part of the calorific rays, and reflect the blue where they are least abundant. Next in order come the green, yellow, red, and, last of all, white bodies, which reflect nearly all the rays both of light and heat. However, there are certain limpid and colourless media, which in some cases intercept calorific radiations and become heated, while in other cases they transmit them and undergo no change of temperature.

All substances may be considered to radiate heat, whatever their temperature may be, though with different intensities, according to their nature, the state of their surfaces, and the temperature of the medium into which they are brought. But every surface absorbs as well as radiates heat; and the power of absorption is always equal to that of radiation; for, under the same circumstances, matter which becomes soon warm also cools

rapidly. There is a constant tendency to an equal diffusion of heat, since every body in nature is giving and receiving it at the same instant; each will be of uniform temperature when the quantities of heat given and received during the same time are equal—that is, when a perfect compensation takes place between each and all the rest. Our sensations only measure comparative degrees of heat: when a body, such as ice, appears to be cold, it imparts fewer calorific rays than it receives; and when a substance seems to be warm-for example, a fire-it gives more heat than it takes. The phenomena of dew and hoar-frost are owing to this inequality of exchange; the heat radiated during the night by substances on the surface of the earth, into a clear expanse of sky, is lost to us, and no return is made from the blue vault, so that their temperature sinks below that of the air, whence they abstract a part of that heat which holds the atmospheric humidity in solution, and a deposition of dew takes place. If the radiation be great, the dew is frozen and becomes hoarfrost, which is the ice of dew. Cloudy weather is unfavourable to the formation of dew, by preventing the free radiation of heat; and actual contact is requisite for its deposition, since it is never suspended in the air like fog. Plants derive a great part of their nourishment from this source; and, as each possesses a power of radiation peculiar to itself, they are capable of procuring a sufficient supply for their wants. The action of the chemical rays imparts to all substances more or less the power of condensing vapour on those parts on which they fall, and must therefore have a considerable influence on the deposition of dew. There may be a low degree of humidity in the air which may yet contain a great quantity of aqueous vapour, for vapour while it exists as gas is dry. The temperature at which the atmosphere can contain no more vapour without precipitation is called the dew point, and is measured by the hygrometer. In foretelling the changes of weather it is scarcely inferior to the barometer.

Steam is formed throughout the whole mass of a boiling liquid, whereas evaporation takes place only at the free surface of liquids, and that under the ordinary temperature and pressure of the atmosphere. There is a constant evaporation from the land and water all over the earth. The rapidity of the formation does not depend altogether on the dryness of the air; according to Dr. Dalton's experiments, it depends also on the difference

between the tension of the vapour which is forming, and that which is already in the atmosphere. In calm weather vapour accumulates in the stratum of air immediately above the evaporating surface, and retards the formation of more; whereas a strong wind accelerates the process by carrying off the vapour as soon as it rises, and making way for a succeeding portion of dry air.

Rain is formed by the mixing of two masses of air of different temperatures; the colder part, by abstracting from the other the heat which holds it in solution, occasions the particles to approach each other and form drops of water, which, becoming too heavy to be sustained by the atmosphere, sink to the earth by gravitation in the form of rain. The contact of two strata of air of different temperatures, moving rapidly in opposite directions, occasions an abundant precipitation of rain. When the masses of air differ very much in temperature, and meet suddenly, hail is formed. This happens frequently in hot plains near a ridge of mountains, as in the south of France, from the sudden descent of an intensely cold current of wind into a mass of air nearly saturated with vapour. Such also is the cause of the severe hail-storms which occasionally take place on extensive plains within the tropics.

An accumulation of heat invariably produces light: with the exception of the gases, all bodies which can endure the requisite degree of heat without decomposition begin to emit light at the same temperature; but, when the quantity of heat is so great as to render the affinity of their component particles less than their affinity for the oxygen of the atmosphere, a chemical combination takes place with the oxygen, light and heat are evolved, and fire is produced. Combustion-so essential for our comfort, and even existence-takes place very easily from the small affinity between the component parts of atmospheric air, the oxygen being nearly in a free state; but, as the cohesive force of the particles of different substances is very variable, different degrees of heat are requisite to produce their combustion. The tendency of heat to a state of equal diffusion or equilibrium, either by radiation or contact, makes it necessary that the chemical combination which occasions combustion should take place instantaneously; for, if the heat were developed progressively, it would be dissipated by degrees, and would never

accumulate sufficiently to produce a temperature high enough for the evolution of flame.

It is a general law that all bodies expand by heat and contract by cold. The expansive force of heat has a constant tendency to overcome the attraction of cohesion, and to separate the constituent particles of solids and fluids; by this separation the attraction of aggregation is more and more weakened, till at last it is entirely overcome, or even changed into repulsion. By the continual addition of heat, solids may be made to pass into liquids, and from liquids to the aëriform state, the dilatation increasing with the temperature; and every substance expands according to a law of its own. Gases expand more than liquids, and liquids more than solids. The expansion of air is more than eight times that of water, and the increase in the bulk of water is at least forty-five times greater than that of iron. Metals dilate uniformly from the freezing to the boiling points of the thermometer; the uniform expansion of the gases extends between still wider limits; but, as liquidity is a state of transition from the solid to the aëriform condition, the equable dilatation of liquids has not so extensive a range. This change of bulk, corresponding to the variation of heat, is one of the most. important of its effects, since it furnishes the means of measuring relative temperature by the thermometer and pyrometer. The rate of expansion of solids varies at their transition to liquidity, and that of liquidity is no longer equable near their change to an aëriform state. There are exceptions, however, to the general laws of expansion; some liquids have a maximum density corresponding to a certain temperature, and dilate whether that temperature be increased or diminished. For example-water expands whether it be heated above or cooled below 40°. The solidification of some liquids, and especially their crystallization, is always accompanied by an increase of bulk. Water dilates rapidly when converted into ice, and with a force sufficient to split the hardest substances. The formation of ice is therefore a powerful agent in the disintegration and decomposition of rocks, operating as one of the most efficient causes of local changes in the structure of the crust of the earth; of which we have experience in the tremendous éboulemens of mountains in Switzerland. But Professor W. Thomson has proved experimentally that it requires a lower temperature to freeze water under pressure than when free.

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