342 FRAGMENTS OF HCIKM K. 



tangled in electro-chemistry. The light .of law was for a 

 time obscured by the thick umbrage of novel facts; but he 

 finally emerged from his researches with the great principle 

 of definite electro-chemical decomposition in his hands. If 

 his discovery of magneto-electricity may be ranked with 

 that of the pile by Volta, this new discovery may almost 

 stand beside that of definite combining proportions in 

 chemistry. He passed on to static electricity its conduc 

 tion, induction, and mode of propagation. He discovered 

 and illustrated the principle of inductive capacity ; and, 

 turning to theory, he asked himself how electrical attrac 

 tions and repulsions are transmitted. Are they, like gravity, 

 actions at a distance, or do they require a medium ? If the 

 former, then, like gravity, they will act in straight lines ; if 

 the latter, then, like sound or light, they may turn a corner. 

 Faraday held, and his views are gaining ground, that his 

 experiments proved the fact of curvilinear propagation, and 

 hence the operation of a medium. Others denied this ; but 

 none can deny the profound and philosophic character of 

 his leading thought. 1 The first volume of the researches 

 contains all the papers here referred to. 



Faraday had heard it stated that henceforth physical 

 discovery would be made solely by the aid of mathematics ; 

 that we had our data, and needed only to work deductively. 

 Statements of a similar character crop out from time to 

 time in our day. They arise from an imperfect acquaintance 

 with the nature, present condition, and prospective vastness 

 of the field of physical inquiry. The tendency of natural 

 science doubtless is to bring all physical phenomena under 

 the dominion of mechanical laws ; to give them, in other 

 words, mathematical expression. But our approach to this 

 result is asymptotic ; and for ages to come possibly for 



1 In a very remarkable paper published in PoggendorfFs Annalen for 

 1857, Werner Siemens develops and accepts Faraday s theory of molecu 

 lar induction. 



