THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 



MA Y 1858. 



XLII. On the Integral of Gravitation, and its consequents with 

 reference to the Measure and Transfer, or communication of 

 Force. By J. J, Waterston, Esq"^. 



MODERN ideas with relation to heat and the active con- 

 dition of the molecular element naturally incline us to 

 estimate every force with regard to its work-producing capacity. 

 In the following paper I have considered gravitation under this 

 aspect, and in doing so, have been led to discuss some points 

 relating to dynamical sequence in the abstract. 



The principle of the conservation of force may now be termed 

 the guiding star of physical inquiry, inasmuch as it appears to 

 be generally admitted as the effective antecedent of the transmu- 

 tations and correlations of natural forces. Although received 

 and upheld as an abstract principle in philosophy before the 

 time of Newton, it was distinctly rejected both by him and by 

 Laplace as inconsistent with natural phsenomena. Even at the 

 present day, mathematicians have been so long accustomed to 

 and brought up in the statical method of treating molecular 

 physics, initiated by those great leaders, that the inefficiency and 

 inconsistency of this mode of inquiry with the mechanical theory 

 of heat seems as yet not to be fully appreciated by some even of 

 the most zealous upholders of that theory. With this impres- 

 sion, it seems desirable that every effort should be made to arrive 

 at a clear understanding of fundamental pionts, and of the prin- 

 ciple of physical causation which the mechanical theory supplies. 



• Communicated by the Author. 

 Phil. Mag. S. 4. Vol. 15. No. 101. May 1858. Z 



