Jfr£ ELECTRO-CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES. 



buftible radicals which possess an opposite electric nature. And 



from all this it follows that it is the radical itself and not the 



oxigen which determines whether the oxide shall be an acid or a 



base. 



Whether the A great question still remains to be discussed : Whether the 



electricities » , ... 



and caloric be e ^clnciUes and caloric be matter or merely phenomena ? This 



matter. question has long been disputed, and will long continue in dis- 



pute before it shall be decided j which, perhaps, will never be 

 done. At present we must content ourselves with reasoning, 

 though our arguments can at best be considered as the sport of 

 imagination upon interesting objects. 



Though they \{ } by the word matter, we understand a body which mani- 

 do not exhibit - . . . . ... r . ' . _ 



gravitation, * ests ,ts presence by gravitation, which possesses a certain kind 



noraggrega- of aggregation, and fills the place of its existence, in such a 



' manner as to exclude all other bodies — it will certainly follow, 



that these problematic beings are not matter. But is it not 



b^'matter* 12 * P 05S ^^ e tnat tne y should be matter, without possessing these 



characters - } or are the reasons greater for considering them as 



The hypothesis phenomena ? — A number of philosophers have considered 

 that light is ,. , , .„ . . , , . , , , 



oscillation "S nt as tne oscillations in a problematical matter produced by 



objectionable; luminous bodies ; and this hypothesis owes its origin to the 



analogy which exists between sound and light. But this 



oscillating matter has not yet been discovered by chemistry ; 



and consequently the hypothesis itself cannot be satisfactory, 



the oscillating because it presupposes a thing of which we cannot find the 

 matter is un- . * * , .. , , , , , . 



known; existence. But if we even admit that light, and the mechani- 



cal phenomena which are presented in its motion, can be 

 attributed to a vibration analogous to that which constitutes 



. sound, this mechanical motion cannot produce the chemical 

 anu mereoscn- ^ ..,. , . ,, ..,<- , 



lation will not effects of light -, such as the alterations in the form, the aggrega- 



cxplain the tion, or the composition of bodies - } more especially as we have 

 changes, never discovered that sound could produce any such effects. 



There is, consequently, some probability that caloric may be 



matter, and that light and all radiations may consist in modes of 



propagating that matter. 

 Ma'ter rr.ay It may be demanded whether we can, imagine the existence of 



aftlnlty an"d " a iria,ter possessing chemical affinities without obeying the laws 

 not gravita- of gravitation. There is certainly no contradiction in this position. 



We admit tjbe difference between cohesion and gravitation, 



and 



