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rosée qui dépend de la froideur ; en d’autres termes, la froideur est la cause de la rosée[1].
» Maintenant cette loi si amplement établie peut se confirmer de trois manières différentes. Premièrement, par déduction, en partant des lois connues que suit la vapeur aqueuse lorsqu’elle est diffuse dans l’air ou dans tout autre
- ↑ It thus appears that the instances in which much dew is deposited, which are very various, agree in this, and, so far as we are able to observe, in this only, that they either radiate heat rapidly or conduct it slowly : qualities between which there is no other circumstance of agreement, than that by virtue of either, the body tends to lose heat from the surface more rapidly than it can be restored from within. The instances, on the contrary, in which no dew, or but a small quantity of it, is formed, and which are also extremely various, agree (so far as we can observe) in nothing, except in not having this same property. This doubt we are not able to resolve. We have found that, in every such instance, the substance must be one which, by its own properties or laws, would, if exposed in the night, become colder than the surrounding air. The coldness therefore, being accounted for independently of the dew, while it is proved that there is a connexion between the two, it must be the dew which depends on the coldness ; or in other words, the coldness is the cause of the dew.
