Exposition of a New Dynamico- Chemical Principle. 171 



the difFerent situations in which it and various substances are 

 placed in relation to each other, serve only to exhibit instances 

 in which the quantity and intensity of the repulsive power 

 varies, thereby enabling experimentalists to deduce general 

 laws which govern a diversified series of phaenomena. — Elec- 

 tricity and magnetism, on the other hand, present still more 

 curious instances of invisible forces exercising functions which 

 rival gravitation in the important parts they sustain in the 

 ceconomy of nature. Modern discoveries have developed the 

 intimate nature of their connections ; and the display of polar 

 forces being their most remarkable feature, is so peculiar to 

 them alone, that we are induced to look upon them as modifi- 

 cations of the same elementary principle. These powers are 

 likewise connected with heat and light, which latter are in 

 most cases coexistent.— Electricity is the basis of chemical 

 affinity, and heat is either absorbed or evolved in chemical 

 action; the former is in most cases accompanied with a simul- 

 taneous change in the latter, whilst the latter in peculiar cir- 

 cumstances induces electrical phenomena. — Magnetism is 

 weakened or destroyed by an excess of heat ; whilst the more 

 refrangible rays of light possess evident magnetic properties. 



Thus are all those subtle agents connected together in the 

 difFerent effects which they communicate to matter, and in the 

 variety of forces which harmonize the routine of natural phae- 

 nomena. Gravitation alone appears to be excluded from this 

 system of interference ; no difference in its intensity, as far as 

 experiment has yet shown, being consequent upon any change 

 which may take place either in temperature or in electric state. 

 Are we then to conclude that heat and electricity are removed 

 from the sphere of its action ? that they act independently of 

 its general influence? If such is their relation to each other, 

 our conceptions of relation and quantity are violated, and the 

 nature of their existence must not only be different but contra- 

 dictory to every thing of which we can form the remotest con- 

 ception. Experiment, however, warrants no such conclusion ; 

 the process appears too delicate, and the magnitude of the 

 results may, like the parallax of the fixed stars, be placed far 

 beyond the range of our means of observation, without at the 

 same time justifying doubts which may be entertained either 

 of the intimate connection of gravitation and caloric, or of the 

 real magnitude of these heavenly bodies. — Is it not more con- 

 sonant to reason to consider them as inseparably combined in 

 their operations ? We know that both powers surround every 

 particle of matter, exist in the same space, and generate mo- 

 tion, at the same time and in the same place : may we not 

 therefore with justice conclude, that so far from acting inde- 

 pendently, gravitation may communicate to heat all the pro- 



Z 2 pertics 



