the Laws of Magnetic Forces. 



311 



TABLE XIV. 



47. These experimental results are quite consistent with the 

 operations of the inductive influence before explained (43.) We 

 immediately perceive, by referring to the attractive forces, that 

 the law of the inverse square of the distance is manifest through 

 all the approximations, except a few of the last, the occasional ir- 

 regularities observed being very inconsiderable ; so that when the 

 magnets are very nearly approximated in relation to their respec- 

 tive intensities (44.), the increments in the forces begin to de- 

 cline, a circumstance of considerable importance in our endea- 

 vours to investigate the laws of magnetic attraction ; for it may 

 be supposed that the inductive influence which thus begins to 

 vary, may at last so far vanish, even before contact, that the ab- 

 solute force, at near approximations, may, in some instances, as 

 already stated (41.), be in an inverse simple ratio of the distance, 

 and which was observed to happen with the bars marked d and e. 



* At these distances the repulsive force was superseded by attraction. 



