the water of the bath must be almost boiling, and consequently it is impossible to plunge the hands into it at that temperature.
It is evident that, if water were used in the foregoing experiment, it would be changed into gas, when exposed to a temperature superior to that at which it boils. Although thoroughly convinced of this, Mr de la Place and myself judged it necessary to confirm it by the following direct experiment.
We filled a glass jar A, (Plate VII. Fig. 5.) with mercury, and placed it with its mouth downwards in a dish B, likewise filled with mercury, and having introduced about two gross of water into the jar, which rose to the top of the mercury at CD; we then plunged the whole apparatus into an iron boiler EFGH, full of boiling sea-water of the temperature of 85° (123.25°), placed upon the furnace GHIK. Immediately upon the water over the mercury attaining the temperature of 80° (212°), it began to boil; and, instead of only filling the small space ACD, it was converted into an aëriform fluid, which filled the whole jar; the mercury even descended below the surface of that in the dish B; and the jar must have been overturned, if it had not been very thick and heavy, and fixed to the dish by means of iron-wire. Immediately after withdrawing the apparatus from the boiler, the vapour in the jar began to condense, and the
