On the 2d of January 1849, a communication, entitled “Theoretical Considerations on the Effect of Pressure in Lowering the Freezing-Point of Water, by James Thomson, Esq., of Glasgow,” was laid before the Royal Society, and it has since been published in theTransactions, Vol. XVI., Part V. In that paper it was demonstrated that, if the fundamental axiom of Carnot's Theory of the Motive Power of Heat be admitted, it follows, as a rigorous consequence, that the temperature at which ice melts will be lowered by the application of pressure; and the extent of this effect due to a given amount of pressure was deduced by a reasoning analogous to that of Carnot from Regnault's experimental determination of the latent heat, and the pressure of saturated aqueous vapour at various temperatures differing very little from the ordinary freezing-point of water.
