Читать книгу A Treatise on Mechanics онлайн
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(18.) When these phenomena are duly considered and compared, little doubt can remain that all substances susceptible of crystallisation, consist of atoms of determinate figure. This is the case with all solid bodies whatever, which have come under scientific observation, for they have been severally found in or reduced to a crystallised form. Liquids crystallise in freezing, and if aëriform fluids could by any means be reduced to the solid form, they would probably also manifest the same effect. Hence it appears reasonable to presume, that all bodies are composed of atoms; that the different qualities with which we find different substances endued, depend on the magnitude and figure of these atoms; that these atoms are indestructible and immutable by any natural process, for we find the qualities which depend on them unchangeably the same under all the influences to which they have been submitted since their creation; that these atoms are so minute in their magnitude, that they cannot be observed by any means which human art has yet contrived; but still that magnitudes can be assigned which they do not exceed.