error, the ship may be lost; and we cannot avoid the conclusion that some skilful artist both knew of these evils and made choice of the means of preventing them. If the boilingpoint of water were slightly different, the evils mentioned above would follow. They have been avoided, and we cannot resist the conclusion that the present adjustment was adopted by one who knew what would be the evils of any other, and who chose to avoid them. Then he is wise and good. 2. The adjustments of the freezing-point of water exhibit the wisdom and goodness of God. No physical necessity is known by virtue of which water must freeze at thirty-two degrees, and not rather thirty degrees higher or lower. The results which would come from a change in either direction show that the selection of the present freezing-point, rather than any other, is a mark of benevolence. If the freezing-point of water were raised ten degrees, in Massachusetts very few weeks of the year would be free from frost. The climate of Okak, "where the missionaries inform us that on the first of May, 1837, their yard was covered with snow to the depth of from five to eight yards, and in August it snowed anew,"1 would almost be equalled in some parts of New England. This state of things may not imply a degree of cold injurious to animal life, as the winter might on the whole be no colder than now; but it would destroy vegetation, partly by frequent frosts, which would cut down individual plants, and partly by the shortness of the summer, which would prevent whole species from maturing seed. Rivers would be closed to navigation much longer than now, and the salt water of our harbors would often freeze. If, on the other hand, the freezing-point of water were lower by thirty degrees, the consequences would be yet more serious. Ice keeps the water under it at a temperature a little above thirty-two degrees. If water could cool down to zero before receiving this protection, the polar seas would become immense reservoirs of perpetual cold which aqueous and aerial currents would diffuse through the temperate zones. Snow would not fall to protect the roots of plants till most of them had been destroyed by cold; and most of the snow which now falls without harm to animals would fall as rain at a temperature near zero, and kill every being exposed to it. If the discomforts and blustering winds of our March thaws came at zero, they would be unendurable. 1 Quoted in Nichol, Cyclopaedia of the Physical Sciences, p. 401, b. Thus the freezing-point of water is adjusted to the mean temperature of spring and summer, being far enough below it to save plants from destructive frosts. It is also adapted to the length of summer and autumn, permitting the plants of each latitude to mature their seed. It is in harmony with the capacity for endurance possessed by animals, saving them from the consequences of a rain or a thaw at zero. Does one believe that this adjustment is the result of accident or chance? He should believe that two and two are four by accident, that every event has a cause by accident. Such a belief is an accident which happens to no sane mind. Does one think that possibly an ignorant contriver stumbled on so happy a medium? Ignorance would stumble on something as inept as this opinion. Does any one doubt whether, after all, a malevolent being may not have chosen so beneficent a relation of means to ends? Only malignity towards infinite benevolence can sanction a mode of reasoning so at variance with all our laws of thought. We cannot resist the tendency of our minds to infer that this particular adjustment was made because its consequences were known and its benefits regarded as desirable. Then its Author is wise and good. 3. The high specific heat of water affords further proof of the wisdom and goodness of God. The specific heat of any substance is the quantity of heat required to raise its temperature one degree, taking for our unit the quantity of heat expended in warming the same weight of water one degree. As a stiff and a flexible bow require very different amounts of strength to bend them equally, different bodies require very different amounts of heat to warm the same weight equally. It is a fact which has elicited much attention, that the specific heat of water is greater than that of any other known substance. The heat which would warm one pound of water eighteen degrees and one half, would raise the temperature of a pound of lead from thirty-two degrees to its meltingpoint. The heat which would warm a pound of water thirtyone degrees, would make a pound of gold red-hot.2 The heat which would boil three pounds of ice-water would melt nineteen pounds of ice-cold lead.3 Were the specific heat of water small, the extremes of summer and winter would be too excessive. Through its enormous power of storing up heat, the ocean acts the part of a balance-wheel, preventing sudden or great variations of temperature. A part of the sea, three hundred and twenty-five feet deep, having the same area as Massachusetts, contains so much heat that by cooling one degree it would warm all the air over that State forty degrees. If the specific heat of water were the same as that of mercury, forty degrees would be reduced to less than one and one third, and the effect of the ocean in moderating the extremes of heat and cold would be but a thirtieth of its present amount. How important this influence is, may be inferred from a comparison of two places, one of which feels its full power, while the other receives a smaller share. The eastern coast. 1 Fusing point of lead [Miller, Chemical Physics, p. 248], 620° F.; specific heat [id. p. 241], 0.0314, water being the standard; [620° - 32°] x.0314 = 18.46°. 2 Lowest temperature at which metals become luminous [Miller, p. 121], 977°4 specific heat of gold [id. p. 242], 0.03244; [977°-32°] ×.03244 = 30.66°. 3 Fusing point of lead [Miller, p. 248], 620°; specific heat [id. p. 241], 0.03140; 212°-32° latent heat of fusion [id. p. 247], 9.65°; (620°-32°) × 0.03140 + 9.65° ▲ Corrected height of barometer at Cambridge, Mass. [Guyot, Tables Meteorological and Physical, third edition, series D, folio 85], 30.010; specific gravity of mercury at 32° [Lardner, Hand-book of Natural Philosophy; Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, and Heat (London, 1858), p. 65], 13.598; specific heat of air [Miller, p. 237], 0.2375; 325 x 12 in. 30.01 in. x 13.598 × 0.2375 X 1o = 40.24°. • Specific heat of mercury [Miller, p. 241], 0.03192; 40.24° Χ..03192 = 1.28°. VOL. XXIV. No. 96. 83 of Iceland is only twenty degrees colder in January than in July; 1 the surrounding water stores up in summer the heat which would be injurious, and returns it to the air in winter when it is needed. But Jakoutsk, in the interior of Siberia, farther from the compensating power of the ocean, suffers a variation of more than a hundred and fourteen degrees in the mean temperatures of those months. No man can tell from what extremes more terrible than this even Jakoutsk is saved by the large specific heat of water. If this were the same as that of lead, or one thirty-second part of its present amount, this compensating power of the ocean would be so small as to be of no avail. The winter of New England would too closely resemble that of Jakoutsk, where mercury is frozen more than three months of the year, and the summer that of Soudan, where sealing-wax melts and ether boils in the shade. Were the specific heat of water small, bodies of water on the earth would receive too much heat in summer. 3 Green River in Williamstown has a temperature during August of sixty-nine and a half degrees. Shallow pools become somewhat warmer than this. If water had the same specific heat as lead, a thirty-second part 4 of its present amount, the heat which warms a river three degrees would be sufficient to warm it ninety-six degrees. Small rivers would therefore become too hot for animal life during August. They would almost boil away on a hot day. The amount of vapor given off would be excessive; fogs would be constant, and the miasma resulting would be intolerable and destructive. This vapor would come down in torrents of rain, as we have indicated above, tearing up the earth, sweeping off vegetation, and destroying the works of man. 1 Nichol, Cyclopaedia of the Physical Sciences, p. 727, and Johnston's Physical Atlas, Isothermal Charts and accompanying text. 2 114.26°, Dove, Report of British Association, Meeting at Oxford, 1847, p. [16] (following p. 376); Nichol and Johnston, loc. cit. 8 From Manuscript Observations by Professor Dewey, Library of Williams College. • Specific heat of lead [Miller, p. 241], 0.03140 nearly. From this survey it would seem, therefore, that the specific heat of water has been adjusted to other parts of the system to which it is related. It is adjusted to the specific heat and to the weight of the atmosphere, and the variations of the seasons are not too excessive. It is adapted to the conditions of comfort for animal life, and the changes from heat to cold are neither too large nor too rapid. It is in harmony with the amount of heat received by the earth from the sun, and therefore water does not become too hot in August. It is suited to the amount of water on the land, so that lakes do not become so nearly dry as to cause miasma. It is adapted to the consistence of the soil; rains are not so copious as to wash it away. It is adjusted to the laws of vision, and fogs do not render eyes useless. If such thoughtful and benevolent provisions do not prove that their cause is wise and good, nothing can be proved. 4. The high latent heat of water affords proof of the wisdom and goodness of God, perhaps more strikingly than the preceding. In melting any solid a certain quantity of heat is expended, not in making it warmer, but in causing a purely mechanical change, in forcing asunder the particles of the body. This heat is said to become latent. The latent heat of melted ice is enormous. To melt a cubic yard of ice already at the temperature of thirty-two degrees, requires all the heat produced by burning a bushel of charcoal.1 This heat would raise seven hundred and five pounds of cast iron from thirtytwo degrees to its melting-point. To melt a ton of ice already at thirty-two degrees, demands as much heat as would raise fifteen hundred and twenty-six pounds of copper, 8 1 Miller, p. 246; applies to elm charcoal. 142.65° 2 Fusing-point of cast iron [Miller, p. 248], 2786°; specific heat [id. p. 241], 0.11379; latent heat of water at 32° [id. p. 247], 142.65°; weight of cubic yard of most compact ice, about 1550 lbs.; X 1550 lbs. = (2786° - 32°) × .11379 705.6 lbs. As specific heat increases with temperature, this is somewhat too large. 3 Specific heat of copper [Miller, p. 241], 0.09515; fusing-point [id. p. 248], X 2000 lbs. 1526.7 lbs. 1996°; 142.65° (1996° - 32°) × .09515 |