G06 Dr. Hare on a recent " Speadation " by Faraday. 



powers of heat and electricity as there is less of matter endowed 

 with ponderability. 



Thus while assuming the existence of fewer imponderable 

 causes than the celebrated author of the speculation has him- 

 self proposed, we explain the conducting power of metals, 

 without being under the necessity of attributing to void space 

 the property of electrical conduction. Moreover, I consider 

 it quite consistent to suppose that the presence of the material 

 power of electricity is indispensable to electrical conduction, 

 and that diversities in this faculty are due to the proportion 

 of that material power present, and the mode of its association 

 with other matter. The immense superiority of metals, as 

 conductors, will be explained by referring it to their being 

 peculiarly replete with the material powers of heat and elec- 

 tricity. 



Hence Faraday's suggestions respecting the materiality of 

 what has heretofore been designated as the properties of bo- 

 dies, furnish the means of refuting his arguments against the 

 existence of ponderable impenetrable atoms as the basis of 

 cohesion, chemical affinity, momentum and gravitation. 



But I will in the next place prove, that his suggestions not 

 only furnish an answer to his objections to the views in this 

 respect heretofore entertained, but are likewise pregnant with 

 consequences directly inconsistent with the view of the subject 

 which he has recently presented. 



I have said that of all the powers of matter which are, ac- 

 cording to Faraday's speculations, to be deemed material, 

 gravitation alone can be ponderable. Since gravitation, in 

 common with every power heretofore attributed to impene- 

 trable particles, must be a matter independently pervading 

 the space throughout which it is perceived, by what tie is it 

 indissolubly attached to the rest? It cannot be pretended 

 that either of the powers is the property of another. Each of 

 them is an m, and cannot play the part of an a, not only be- 

 cause an m cannot be an a, but because no a can exist. Nor 

 can it be advanced that they are the same power, since che- 

 mical affinity and cohesion act only at insensible distances, 

 while gravitation acts at any and every distance, with forces 

 inversely as their squares : and moreover, the power of che- 

 mical affinity is not commensurate with that of gravitation. 

 One part by weight of hydrogen has a greater affinity uni- 

 versally for any other element, than 200 parts of gold. By 

 what means then are cohesion, chemical affinity, and gravi- 

 tation, inseparably associated, in all the ponderable elements 

 of matter? Is it not fatal to the validity of the highly inge- 

 nious and interesting deductions of Faraday, that they are 



