Caloric, when in a state of rest, exists in different proportions, and although the actual temperature may be the same, yet the quantity of caloric in a quiescent state may be variable. There are several experiments, which are adduced to illustrate this fact. It results from experiment, that bodies receive heat according to their several capacities for it; hence, when any number of bodies are differently heated, the caloric, which becomes latent, does not distribute itself in equal quantities, but in various proportions, according, as we remarked, to their several capacities. Caloric, therefore, in a state of rest, is in relative quantities; and as the capacity of bodies for heat is variable, and relative as to each other, the term _specific caloric_ has been applied. From these conclusions, we may readily perceive what is implied by an equality of temperature. That it merely depends on the state of rest, which caloric necessarily comes to, and which is relative as respects the capacity of bodies, and nothing more, is a deduction very plain and obvious. Heat, in a state of motion, may be said to be progressing to a quiescent state; and equalization of temperature, although differently understood, may be considered an equalization of fixed caloric, according to the relative capacity of bodies, without regarding the equalization, which takes place of uncombined caloric, as is manifested by thermometrical instruments. In a word, by considering caloric in this view, that of tending to a state of rest, and uniting with bodies according to their respective capacities, we may account for many phenomena; as, for instance, the quantity of caloric which enters into ice, and becomes latent, during liquefaction. The quantity of caloric, in this respect, may be learnt by adding a pound of ice at 32 degrees to a pound of water at 172 degrees. The temperature will be much below 102 degrees, the arithmetical mean, viz. 32 degrees. It is evident that the excess of caloric has disappeared; and by deducting 32 degrees from 172 degrees, 140 degrees remain, which is the quantity of caloric that enters into a pound of ice during liquefaction, or the quantity required to raise a pound of water from 32 degrees to 172 degrees. This change of capacity appears to be absolutely essential to the well being of the universe, as affording a constant modification of the action of heat and cold, the effects of which would otherwise be inordinate. If this did not take place, the whole of a mass of water, which was exposed to a temperature above the boiling point, would be instantly dissipated in vapour with explosion. The polar ice, would all instantly dissolve, whenever the temperature of the circumambient air was above 32 degrees, if it were not that each particle absorbs a quantity of caloric in its solution, and thereby generates a degree of cold which arrests and regulates the progress of the thaw; and the converse of this takes place in