Note * — CHEMISTRY.

This defence of the general theory, however plausible, is liable to some obvious objections. The phenomenon might perhaps be better accounted for by supposing that a solution of alkali in water has less capacity for heat than either water or alkali in their separate state.

* This amalgam is easily obtained, by placing a globule of mercury upon a piece of muriat, or carbonat of ammonia, and electrifying this globule by the Voltaic battery. The globule instantly begins to expand to three or four times its former size, and becomes much less fluid, though without losing its metallic lustre, a change which is ascribed to the metallic basis of ammonia uniting with the mercury. This is an extremely curious experiment.