LIFE FROM A PHYSICAL STANDPOINT. 13 



When a mass of matter is heated and left in space it presently 

 cools by a process called radiation, that is, waves in the ether 

 are produced by the vibratory motions, and the energy is 

 handed over to the ether, which carries it away at an enormous 

 velocity, that of light, but the kind of energy which itself repre- 

 sents it cannot yield up, yet it reacts upon this same ether in 

 another way so as to reduce the pressure about itself; so one 

 might very well consider that half of the energy of the atoms 

 lies in the ether and is exchangeable with it, that is, the atom 

 can apparently call in a supply of energy, from space, for an 

 emergency. 



The space about a body, within which it is capable of affecting ■ 

 other bodies without contact with them, is called its field, and 

 there are several different kinds of fields. The gravitation field is 

 as extensive as space, for every particle of matter attracts every 

 other particle, no matter what the distance. In like manner 

 every heated body sends out its radiant energy to other bodies 

 to an indefinite distance, and the bodies on which such radiant 

 energy falls are heated like the first. An electrified body has 

 an electric field, within which other bodies become electrified 

 simply by being present in the space. A magnet has a mag- 

 netic field, and iron and some other bodies become sensibly 

 magnetic by being in such magnetic field. Likewise atoms 

 have chemical fields, within which chemical reactions of defi- 

 nite sorts are induced. This field has in some instances been 

 traced in solutions nearly an inch from the body producing it. 

 The effect of this field is similar to that of the others, namely, 

 to bring about chemical reactions, and therefore molecularly 

 organized products similar to that of the originating body. A 

 minute crystal of a substance will cause the crystaUization of a 

 large mass of the same substance in solution. So that here 

 are other attributes of atoms, in which their conditions and 

 motions bring about similar conditions and motions in distant 

 bodies, by what is called sympathetic action, just as a vibrating 

 tuning-fork will set another tuning-fork vibrating, if the latter 

 has the same pitch, though it be many feet away from the first. 



Does it not appear that matter has greater and more wonder- 

 ful endowments than has been supposed } — loaded with energy. 



