substances which compose our earth, if its temperature were suddenly altered. If, for instance, we were suddenly transported into the region of the planet Mercury, where probably the common temperature is much superior to that of the boiling water, the water of the earth, and all the other fluids which are susceptible of the gasseous state, at a temperature near to that of boiling water, even quicksilver itself, would become rarified; and all these substances would be changed into permanent aëriform fluids or gasses, which would become part of the new atmosphere. These new species of airs or gasses would mix with those already existing, and certain reciprocal decompositions and new combinations would take place, until such time as all the elective attractions or affinities subsisting amongst all these new and old gaseous substances had operated fully; after which, the elementary principles composing these gasses, being saturated, would remain at rest. We must attend to this, however, that, even in the above hypothetical situation, certain bounds would occur to the evaporation of these substances, produced by that very evaporation itself; for as, in proportion to the increase of elastic fluids, the pressure of the atmosphere would be augmented, as every degree of pressure tends, in some measure, to prevent evaporation, and as even the most evaporable
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