. 
Anfinite Divisibility of Matter. a9 
less whatever of the acting power ;” therefore the steam 
engine pion be improved. 
OF THE ARTICLE ON imp RovEMENTs IN MACHINERY, 
* NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, VOL. ¥. NEW SERIES. i 
* July 30th, . 
' Arr. XII. —Remarks on Art. 24, of No. 2, Vol. IX. nan he 
Amer. Journal of Sctence and Arts: 
So many cavils and objections have been made, in po 
times against the doctrines of the infinite divisibility of mat- 
ter, or rather of extension, and the arguments opposing it 
have been so completely refuted by Mathematicians, that 
one could hardly expect a revival of them after a en Aa 4 
more than acentury. The men of genius of the present 
would do well not to oe entirely on that ocatied bi esl 
A knowledge of what has been done by others, on a 
ject, ought ever to geniane any attempts towards its exten- 
sion, or improvement. Had the writer of the 24th Peco of 
the last number of the Journal, read, and fully comprehend- 
ed the irrefragable arguments of Keil, in his introduction te 
Natural Philosophy, it is presumed he would not have con- 
sidered the infinite divisibility of extension as an impossi- 
bility, because he had conceived a case of motion apparently 
inconsistent with it, and made that the basis of an argument, 
neglec ting the most essential - attribute, and measure of me- 
tion, viz. -Time. mets a 
_ It is a well known principle in mechanics, that the space 
passed over by a. body in uniform motion, is to be estimated 
by the time and velocity sanintiy ~ s==tv, and that what- 
ever the kind of motion may be, - e shall always have 
s=it. Now assuming these srdeilas, which are the funda- 
mentals of all mechanics, we shall have t= - and ta < , and. 
: we ara the case age, Sy by the — nape 
body motion have commenced its 
a A sid. to “proceed in a right line towards B, 
B, and that this motion be 
isch ee as made by intervals, first by the passage over } 
the line, or from A to a, and then over 4 of what remains, or 
ato C,and again over 5 the remainder, and so on continually; 
