132 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



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great luminary of our system. Hopkins' Address, British Association, 

 1853. 



At a subsequent meeting of the Association, Prof. Phillips remarked 

 that in terrestrial magnetism, magnetic and diamagnetic effects on a 

 suspended needle ought probably to be looked for as a simple conse- 

 quence of the superposition of the strata, and their pressure on one 

 another. Looking at what had been done with magnetism, and con- 

 sidering what had been stated by Colonel Sabine, that the moon as 

 well as the sun had effects on magnetism, he must say that he thought 

 the day would come when we should be able, by magnetism, to arrive 

 at the nature of those substances beneath the thin crust of the earth's 

 surface, and that over the red sandstone of England we should be 

 able to see into the condition of coal measures, without actually mak- 

 ing a perforation. 



FARADAY ON THE MOTION OF TABLES. 



The following account of the method pursued and the results ob- 

 tained by Prof. Faraday in the investigation of a subject which has 

 taken such strange occupation of the public mind, both in America 

 and Europe, was communicated by the author to the London Athe- 

 naeum. 



" I have been," says the Professor, " greatly startled by the revela- 

 tion which this purely physical subject has made of the condition of 

 the public mind. No doubt, there are many persons who have formed 

 a right judgment or used a cautious reserve for I know several 

 such, and public communications have shown it to be so ; but their 

 number is almost as nothing to the greSt body who have believed and 

 borne testimony, as I think, in the cause of error. I do not here refer 

 to the distinction of those who agree with me and those who differ. 

 By the great body, I mean such as reject all consideration of the equal- 

 ity of cause and effect who refer the results to electricity and mag- 

 netism, yet know nothing of the laws of these forces or to attrac- 

 tion, yet show no phenomena of pure attractive power or to the 

 rotation of the earth, as if the earth revolved round the leg of a 

 table or to some unrecognized physical force, without inquiring 

 whether the known forces are not sufficient or who even refer them 

 to diabolical or supernatural agency, rather than suspend their judg- 

 ment, or acknowledge to themselves that they are not learned enough 

 in these matters to decide on the nature of the action. I think the 

 system of education that could leave the mental condition of the pub- 

 lic body in the state in which this subject has found, it must have been 

 greatly deficient in some very important principle." 



" The object which I had in view in this inquiry was not to satisfy 

 myself, for my conclusion had been formed already on the evidence of 

 those who had turned tables but that I might be enabled to give a 

 strong opinion, founded on facts, to the many who applied to me for 

 it. Yet, the proof which I sought for, and the method followed in the 

 inquiry, were precisely of the same nature as those which I should 



