That this should be so is but in
accordance with rational expectation. For hot and cold, solid and
fluid, as was stated in a former treatise, are the foundations of
the physical elements.
Is then the term hot used in one sense or in many? To answer this we
must ascertain what special effect is attributed to a hotter
substance, and if there be several such, how many these may be. A body
then is in one sense said to be hotter than another, if it impart a
greater amount of heat to an object in contact with it. In a second
sense, that is said to be hotter which causes the keener sensation
when touched, and especially if the sensation be attended with pain.
This criterion, however, would seem sometimes to be a false one; for
occasionally it is the idiosyncrasy of the individual that causes
the sensation to be painful. Again, of two things, that is the
hotter which the more readily melts a fusible substance, or sets on
fire an inflammable one. Again, of two masses of one and the same
substance, the larger is said to have more heat than the smaller.
Again, of two bodies, that is said to be the hotter which takes the
longer time in cooling, as also we call that which is rapidly heated
hotter than that which is long about it; as though the rapidity
implied proximity and this again similarity of nature, while the
want of rapidity implied distance and this again dissimilarity of
nature.
Pages:
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54