state of excitement; those fronting the engine are driven with force against their opposite neighbours, and are, no doubt, as forcibly repelled, each one taking care of himself in the general scramble. Now, we have only to substitute particles for persons, in order to obtain an idea of what takes place when percussion is converted into heat. We have, or suppose we have, in this act the same violent collision of atoms, the same thrusting forward of A upon B, and the same violence in pushing back on the part of B—the same struggle, confusion, and excitement—the only difference being that particles are heated instead of human beings, or their tempers.
54. We are bound to acknowledge that the proof which we have now given is not a direct one; indeed, we have, in our first chapter, explained the impossibility of our ever seeing these individual particles, or watching their movements; and hence our proof of the assertion that heat consists in such movements cannot possibly be direct. We cannot see that it does so consist, but yet we may feel sure, as reasonable beings, that we are right in our conjecture.
In the argument now given, we have only two alternatives to start with—either heat must consist of a motion of particles or, when percussion or friction is converted into heat, a peculiar substance called caloric must be created, for if heat be not a species of motion it must necessarily be a species of matter. Now, we have preferred to consider heat, as a species of motion to the alter-
