16
Of the Mechanical Origine
A
DIGRESSION
ABOUT
Potential Coldness.
Potential Coldness has been generally lookt upon, and that partly perhaps upon the score of its very name, as so abstruse a Quality, that 'tis not onely rational but necessary to derive it from the substantial Forms of bodies. But I confess I see no necessity of believing it not to be referrable to Mechanical Principles. For as to the chief Instances of Potential Coldness, which are taken from the effects of some Medicines and aliments in the bodies of men, it may be said without improbability, that the produced Refrigeration proceeds chiefly from this, that the potentiallycold
