The term hot being
used in all these various senses, it plainly follows that the term
cold will also be used with like ambiguity.
So much then as to the signification of the terms hot and cold,
hotter and colder.
3
In natural sequence we have next to treat of solid and fluid.
These terms are used in various senses. Sometimes, for instance,
they denote things that are potentially, at other times things that
are actually, solid or fluid. Ice for example, or any other solidified
fluid, is spoken of as being actually and accidentally solid, while
potentially and essentially it is fluid. Similarly earth and ashes and
the like, when mixed with water, are actually and accidentally
fluid, but potentially and essentially are solid. Now separate the
constituents in such a mixture and you have on the one hand the watery
components to which its fluidity was due, and these are both
actually and potentially fluid, and on the other hand the earthy
components, and these are in every way solid; and it is to bodies that
are solid in this complete manner that the term 'solid' is most
properly and absolutely applicable. So also the opposite term
'fluld' is strictly and absolutely applicable to that only which is
both potentially and actually fluid. The same remark applies also to
hot bodies and to cold.
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