However satisfactory the general principles of motion may be, when applied to the action of bodies upon each other, in all those circumstances which are usually included in that branch of natural philosophy called mechanics, yet the application of the same principles in the investigation of the motions of fluids, and their actions upon other bodies, is subject to great uncertainty. That the different kinds of airs are constituted of particles endued with repulsive powers, is manifest from their expansion when the force with which they are compressed is removed. The particles being kept at a distance by their mutual repulsion, it is easy to conceive that they may move very freely amongst each other, and that this motion may take place in all directions, each particle exerting its repulsive power equally on all sides. Thus far we are acquainted with the constitution of these fluids; but with what absolute degree of facility the particles move, and how this may be affected under different degrees of compression, are circumstances of which we are totally ignorant. In respect to those fluids which are denominated liquids, we are still less acquainted with their nature. If we suppose their particles to be in contact, it is extremely difficult to conceive how they can move amongst each other with such extreme facility, and produce effects in directions opposite to the impressed force without any sensible loss of motion. To account for this, the particles are supposed to be perfectly smooth and spherical. If we were to admit this supposition, it would yet remain to be proved how this would solve all the phænomena, for it is by no means self-evident that it would. If the particles be not in contact, they must be kept at a distance by some repulsive power. But it is manifest that these particles attract each other, from the drops of all perfect liquids affecting to form themselves into spheres. We must therefore admit in this case both powers, and that where one power ends the other begins, agreeable to Sir Isaac Newton's idea of what takes place not only in respect to the constituent particles of bodies, but to the bodies themselves. The incompressibility of liquids (for I know no decisive experiments which have proved them to be compressible) seems most to favour the former supposition, unless we admit, in the latter hypothesis, that the repulsive force is greater than any human power which can be applied. The expansion of water by heat, and the possibility of actually converting it into two permanently elastic fluids, according to some late experiments, seem to prove that a repulsive power exists between the particles; for it is hard to conceive that heat can actually create any such new powers, or that it can of itself produce any such effects. All these uncertainties respecting the constitution of fluids must render the conclusions deduced from any
theory
subject to considerable errors, except
that
which is founded upon such experiments as include in them the consequences of all those principles which are liable to any degree of uncertainty.
Ancient Natural Philosophy in Byzantine Christology: The Issue of Penetration of Fire into Iron
