Note 812 — Chapter V · (continued 2)

‘He’ (i.e. Cavendish) ‘here omits entirely the consideration of latent heat; an omission which he even attempts to justify, in one of the passages interpolated by Blagden. But it is well known to every one acquainted with the first principles of chemical science, even as it was taught in the days of Black, and it was indisputably familiar to Mr. Watt, that no aëriform fluid can be converted into a liquid, nor any liquid into a solid, without tho evolution of heat, previously latent. This essential part of the process, Mr. Cavendish's theory does not embrace; but without it, no theory on the subject can be complete; and it will presently be seen, that Mr. Watt took it fully into account.’ Muirhead's Life of Watt, p. 315.