No."

_Father._ "Why?"

_B----._ "I don't know."

_Father._ "What happens to water when it does what we call _boil_?"

_H----._ "It bubbles, and makes a sort of noise."

_B----._ "It turns into steam or vapour, I believe."

_Father._ "All at once?"

_B----._ "No: but what is at the top, first."

_Father._ "Now you see the reason why water can't be made hotter than
boiling hot: for if a certain degree of heat be applied to it, it
changes into the form of vapour, and flies off. When I was a little
boy, I was once near having a dreadful accident. I had not been taught
the nature of water, and steam, and heat, and evaporation; and I
wanted to fill a wet hollow stick with melted lead. The moment I
poured the lead into the stick, the water in the wood turned into
vapour suddenly, and the lead was thrown up with great violence to the
ceiling: my face narrowly escaped. So you see people should know what
they are about before they meddle with things.--But now as to the
chocolate."

No one seemed to have any thing to say about the chocolate.

_Father._ "Water, you know, boils with a certain degree of heat. Will
oil, do you think, boil with the same heat?"

_C----._ "I don't understand."

_Father._ "In the same _degree of heat_ (you must learn to accustom
yourself to those words, though they seem difficult to you)--In the
same heat, do you think water or oil would boil the soonest?"

None of the children knew.

_Father._ "Water would boil the soonest. More heat is necessary to
make oil boil, or turn into vapour, than to make water evaporate. Do
you know of any thing which is used to _determine_, to _show_, and
_mark_, to us the different degrees of heat?"

_B----._ "Yes; a thermometer."

_Father._ "Yes: thermometer comes from two Greek words, one of which
signifies heat, and the other measure. Meter, means measure.
Thermo_meter_ a measurer of heat; baro_meter_, a measurer of the
weight of the air; hygro_meter_, a measurer of moisture. Now, if you
remember, on the thermo_meter_ you have seen these words at a certain
mark, _the heat of boiling water_. The quicksilver, in a thermometer,
rises to that mark when it is exposed to that degree of heat which
will make the water turn into vapour. Now the degree of heat which is
necessary to make oil evaporate, is not marked on the thermometer; but
it requires several degrees more heat to evaporate oil, than is
necessary to evaporate water.--So now you know that chocolat