Page:Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat.djvu/156

132 primitive physical state as to density, temperature, and molecular constitution, it must contain the same quantity of heat as that which it initially possessed; or, in other words, we suppose that the quantities of heat lost by the body under one set of operations are precisely compensated by those which are absorbed in the others. This fact has never been doubted; it has at first been admitted without reflection, and afterwards verified, in many cases, by calorimetrical experiments. To deny it would be to overturn the whole theory of heat, in which it is the fundamental principle. It must be admitted, however, that the chief foundations on which the theory of heat rests, would require a most attentive examination. Several experimental facts appear nearly inexplicable in the actual state of this theory."

7. Since the time when Carnot thus expressed himself, the necessity of a most careful examination of the entire experimental basis of the theory of heat has become more and more urgent. Especially all those assumptions depending on the idea that heat is a substance, invariable in quantity; not convertible into any other element, and incapable of being generated by any physical agency; in fact the acknowledged principles of latent heat,—would require to be tested by a most