516 Sir G. C. Haughton o?j the Common Nature of 



relative intensities would be according to the ratio assigned 

 to each : — 



To judge by the facility with which the needles attached 

 themselves, brass is undoubtedly worthy of the high place it 

 maintains in the preceding list ; but 1 should certainly say 

 from my own convictions, that glass is much stronger in its 

 adhesions than even pure gold, and perhaps equal to brass. 

 The advantage that iron has over the magnetic needle is con- 

 spicuous, and is deserving of attention, though the ratio of 

 the magnet might very fairly be raised to '2'00, for it is in part 

 owing to the experiments with the larger range of substances, 

 that it stands so low. 



The preceding experiments include a vast variety of sub- 

 stances in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdom.^, that 

 exhibit such strong attractive affinities for one another, that 

 however much they may differ in their external appearances, and 

 in their very natures, they are bound together by common 

 bonds that connect them all into a single family; for we find the 

 metal attaching itself to crystalline, animal and vegetable sub- 

 stances; and again, the crystal, whether we call it by the name 

 of diamond, salt, or sugar-candy, connecting itself readily to 

 metallic, animal and vegetable bodies. In a similar wa\' ani- 

 mal bodies attach themselves to those that are mineral and 

 vegetable ; and to complete the circle, the vegetable king- 

 dom, by its woods, its gums, its lac and its resins, is connected 

 with them all. 



Out of about 600 measurements the proportion of those 

 that have exhibited repulsion, or what may be presumed re- 

 pulsion, for there is only negative proof on the subject, is 

 about 1 in 25. Could a counter system of measurements be 

 established it is possible this might be reversed, and that the 

 same amount of repulsions would be obtained, and this per- 

 haps is the fact in Dr. Faraday's remarkable experiments, 

 owing to the influence of the electro-magnet. Still the facility 

 with which the majority of these connexions was established, 

 can hardly lead to a doubt that they are purely of a normal 

 character, where the magnetic needle is not concerned, be- 

 cause they can only result from the spontaneous effects of 



