[ 170 j 



XXII. Exposition of a Nexv Dynamico- Chemical Principle. 

 By Mr. John James Waterstone*. 



" The new discoveries, in short, reveal to us the world of secret motions, 

 whose laws are, probably analogous to those of the universe, and which 

 deserve to be the subject of our most earnest meditations." 



CErsted on Thermo-Electricity, Edin, Encyc. 



I^ITHEN we reflect on the progress which has been made, 

 ' * and is still making, in the physical sciences, and more 

 especially in those which investigate the active properties of 

 matter ; when we behold that insatiable thirst after discovery, 

 that enlightened spirit of inquiry, which so universally pervades 

 the philosophic world, it becomes a source of exalted gratifi- 

 cation to trace the steps which have led to so many brilliant 

 results, and in contemplation of the future to look forward to 

 that period when all that is now concealed under the veil of 

 mystery shall finally be exposed in the sublime grandeur and 

 simplicity which so eminently characterizes the works of na- 

 ture. The illustrious example which Newton held forth to 

 posterity, of a philosopher who applied mathematical reason- 

 ing with so much success in explaining the grander pha;no- 

 mena of the universe, introduced the same system amongst 

 those who succeeded him ; which, joined to experimental ana- 

 lysis, have unfolded a series of the most splendid discoveries 

 in every department of natural philosophy. Heat, electricity, 

 magnetism, and light, are the principal fields in which the 

 powers of induction have been most conspicuously displayed. 

 The late discoveries and researches of Young, CErsted, See- 

 beck, &c. have shown that those sciences are intimately con- 

 nected, and that the actual principles of nature, if we except 

 perhaps gravitation, interfere with each other in such a man- 

 ner as to lead us to conjecture they may all be particular 

 modifications of one agent. If we, however, consider the nu- 

 merous insulated facts which experimental investigation is so 

 fertile in producing, that cannot even be generalized under any 

 special laws, or included under any common analogy, we must 

 be sensible that a vast distance yet separates us from the pri- 

 mary causes of all those pha;nomena. 



Experiment, however ably conducted, has as yet shown 

 nothing in heat, electricity and magnetism, but simply and 

 exclusively the existence of force, and it seems doubtful if it 

 will ever lead us directly to the knowledge of the essential 

 nature of those powers. Heat is an example of a repulsive 

 energy existing between the constituent atoms of bodies, and all 



* Communicated by the Author. 



the 



i 



