188 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tage. We shall hereafter see electricity in a thousand conditions 

 in which we did not before suspect it. Every blaze, every lumi- 

 nous atom becomes an electrical phenomenon. Even if a body 

 does not cast light, it is a center of electrical action if it radiates 

 heat. The domain of electricity is therefore extended over all 

 nature, and even possesses us ; for is not the eye, in fact, an elec- 

 trical organ ? Such are the results which we obtain in these 

 questions of detail ; those that concern the philosophy of science 

 are no less important. 



One of our most difficult problems is that of actions at a dis- 

 tance. Are they real ? Of all those which seemed indisputable 

 to us, gravitation is the only one that is left. Will it also escape ? 

 The laws of its action themselves provoke the thought. The 

 nature of electricity is another of these great Unknowns. It 

 reverts to the question of the condition of electrical and magnetic 

 forces in space. Behind this rises the most important problem of 

 all that of the nature and properties of the substance that fills 

 space, of the ether, its structure, its movements, and its limits if 

 it has any. We see this question becoming more and more domi- 

 nant over all the others. The knowledge of the ether seems des- 

 tined not only to reveal to us the condition of the imponderable 

 substance, but also the nature of matter itself and its inherent 

 properties weight and inertia. 



The ancient systems of physics summarized everything as 

 formed of water and fire. Modern physics will shortly be asking if 

 all existing things are not modalities of the ether. Here lies the 

 ultimate end of our knowledge, the culmination of all that we can 

 hope to learn. Shall we ever reach it ? Soon ? We do not know. 

 But we have reached a greater height than ever before, and we 

 have gained a solid point of support which will make our upward 

 progress and search for new truths easier. The way that is open- 

 ing before us is not too steep, and the next step does not look in- 

 accessible. There is a numerous company of seekers full of ardor 

 and knowledge ; and we wait with confident hope all the attempts 

 that will be made in that direction. Translated for The Popular 

 Science Monthly from the Revue Scientifique. 



A new method of disposing of the dead, which he calls "sanitary entombment," 

 is proposed by the Rev. Charles R. Treat. It is intended to combine the feature 

 of deposition in a tomb with desiccation, whereby the preservation is secured of 

 the body freed from all noxious properties. An arrangement of buildings is con- 

 templated, like that of the Campo Santo of Pisa, so constructed that anhydrous 

 air may enter the tomb and pass over the body to absorb all moisture and morbific 

 matter, which it will convey to a separate structure, where all shall be consumed 

 in a furnace. Thus the form of the body may be retained, while all of it that is 

 subject to decay is cremated. 



