MAGNETIC STORMS. 251 



niena of Aurora by acting upon electricity in a state of 

 glow ? or have we evidence in this display of the circu- 

 lation of the magnetic fluid around our globe, manifest- 

 ing itself by its action on the ferruginous and other 

 metallic matter, which Fusinieri has proved to exist in 

 the upper regions of our atmosphere.* That magnetic 

 radiations do exist, has been proved by Faraday, and 

 that they form lines of force perpendicular to the earth's 

 surface, has been experimentally shown. Parallelograms 

 of wire moved upon a central axis, and connected with 

 a galvanometer, give at every revolution indication of an 

 electric disturbance in all respects analogous to the 

 production of a current by moving wires in front of a 

 steel magnet. 



The alteration in the properties of heat, when it 

 passes from the radiant state into combination with 

 matter, exhibits to us something like what we may sup- 

 pose occurs in the conversion of magnetism into electri- 

 city or the contrary. We have a subtile agent, which 

 evidently is for ever busy in producing the necessary 

 conditions of change in this our earth : an elemeut to 

 which is due the development of many of the most active 

 powers of nature ; performing its part by blending with 

 those principles which w r e have already examined; 

 associating itself with every form of matter ; and giving, 

 as we shall presently see, in all probability, the first 

 impulses to combination, and regulating the forms of 

 aggregating particles. 



* " The Aurora Borealis is certainly in some measure a mag- 

 netical phenomenon ; and if iron were the only substance capable 

 of exhibiting magnetic effects, it would follow that some fer- 

 ruginous particles must exist in the upper regions of the atmos- 

 phere. The light usually attending this magnetical meteor may 

 possibly be derhed from electricity, which may be the immediate 

 cause of a change in the distribution of the magnetic fluid, con- 

 tained in the ferruginous vapours which are imagined to float in 

 the air." Lecture on Magnetism : Young's Lectures on Natural 

 Philosophy, p. 533. 



