162 HELMHOLTZ ON THE CONSERVATION OF FORCE. 



completely prevented from escaping outwards. The imper- 

 fections of Matteucci^s methods in carrying out these measure- 

 ments need not be further dwelt upon. 



By what has been laid down in the foregoing pages, I be- 

 lieve I have proved that the law in question does not contra- 

 dict any known fact in natural science, but in a great number 

 of cases is, on the contrary, corroborated in a striking manner. 

 I have endeavoured to state in the most complete manner pos- 

 sible, the inferences which flow from a combination of the law 

 with other known laws of natural phaenomena, and which still 

 await their experimental proof. The object of this investigation 

 was to lay before physicists as fully as possible the theoretic 

 and practical importance of a law whose complete corroboration 

 must be regarded as one of the principal problems of the natural 

 philosophy of the future. 



[J. T.] 



