460 Prof. W. Beetz on the Molecular Changes 



contradictory results might be removed, if the experiments were 

 carried on under precisely similar circumstances. Add to this, 

 that Koosen* and von Feilitzschf came, on entirely different 



grounds, to the same conclusion, viz. that the ratio — was not 



constant, but approximated to a limit ; and the old view of the 

 separation of neutral magnetism present in inexhaustible quan- 

 tities, must be regarded as altogether inadmissible, as must also 

 be the case with the hypothesis of the separation of two electric 

 fluids capable of being set in motion in quantities without 

 limit about the molecules of the magnetized body. 



There remains, therefore, the choice between two hypotheses — 



1. That magnetization is due to the separation of two 

 magnetic or electric fluids, which are only present in limited 

 quantities. 



2. That it is due to the change of position of the molecules 

 of the body magnetized, whether these are to be regarded as 

 molecular magnets on account of the simple separation of the 

 two fluids, or on account of the molecular currents continually 

 circulating about them. 



As above remarked, the observations that have been made 



concerning the law according to which the magnitude — ap- 

 proaches its limit, render it probable that the latter of these 

 two hypotheses is correct : the intimate relation, which Wiede- 

 mann J found to exist between the phenomenon of magnetism 

 and the torsion of a steel rod, are still more positively in favour 

 of the theory of the cooperation of the material particles of the 

 magnetized iron, since it would be hard to discover any other 

 explanation of these relations than that suggested by the above- 

 named physicist, the supposition, namely, of moveable particles. 



The experiments I am about to communicate will furnish new 

 and, I trust, conclusive evidence in favour of this hypothesis. 



I first endeavoured to produce a magnet which should possess 

 a maximum charge, that is to say, which should be so perfect a 

 permanent magnet, that its magnetism could not be increased 

 by any temporary magnetizing current. 



Proceeding on the hypothesis of rotatory atoms, such a state 

 must necessarily be attained if we so manage as not to operate 

 on a ready-made iron bar by means of a polarizing force, but 

 cause the separate molecules, under the influence of such a force, 

 to arrange themselves, side by side, with their axes parallel, and 

 thus form themselves into a magnetic bar. In order to effect 



* P°gg- ^ nn ' v °l- l xx xv. p. 159. f lb. vol. lxxx. p. 321. 



X lb. vol. cvi. p. 161. 



