58 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION. 



repel one another, an action commences in the atoms, if the 

 friction continues long enough, to reverse the poles. Should the 

 friction be intense, we have the metal dissolved, that is, repelled 

 from each bar or piece, and amalgamated with that of the other. 



In rubbing two pieces of wood we have a similar resultant 

 action, but as the heat increases the atoms are thrown off in the 

 form of gas, and such is the nature of the action in this class of 

 atoms, that combustion is the result of their reciprocation. 



Sir Humphrey Davy's experiment of dissolving two pieces of 

 ice by rubbing them together, caused quite a discussion at one 

 time, and strange conclusions are drawn from it by Prof. Tyndall 

 and others. But it is easily explained. In ice there are a con- 

 siderable number of mineral atoms, and the friction of these at 

 opposite poles, produces a heat which gives the atoms of one 

 piece, a greater attraction for the atoms in the other, than they 

 have to the piece they are connected with, and thus they are 

 repelled; a sufficiency of oxygen being thus set free by the 

 heat, or being present in the atmosphere, it combines with the 

 repelled mineral atoms and forms water. 



We have now given, it is hoped, such an explanation of heat 

 as will be understood, and, by way of contrast, we make a few 

 quotations from our most distinguished writers on the subject. 



In reading Professor Tyndall's lectures on " Heat as a mode 

 of motion" we admired them very much, and his experiments 

 were no doubt beautiful to behold. But, while we do not deny 

 any fact he illustrated, or any experiment he performed, we 

 certainly do deny many of the conclusions he arrived at. For, 

 regarding the assistance to be derived from experiments per- 

 formed in the laboratory, in corroborating assertion, or proving 

 theory, we are very much in doubt ; inasmuch as the mode of 



