492 



INDUCTION. 



results ; we should never, probably, have had the notion now 

 implied by the words chemical composition : and, in the facts 

 of water produced from hydrogen and oxygen, and hydrogen 

 and oxygen produced from water, as the transformation would 

 have been complete, we should have seen only a transformation. 

 The very promising generalization now commonly known 

 as the Conservation or Persistence of Force, bears a close resem- 

 blance to what the conception of chemical composition would 

 become, if divested of the one circumstance which now dis- 

 tinguishes it from simple transformation. It has long been 

 known that heat is capable of producing electricity, and 

 electricity heat ; that mechanical motion in numerous cases 

 produces and is produced by them both ; and so of all other 

 physical forces. It has of late become the general belief of 

 scientific inquirers that mechanical force, electricity, magnetism, 

 heat, light, and chemical action (to which has subsequently 

 been added vital action) are not so much causes of one 

 another as convertible into one another ; and they are now 

 generally spoken of as forms of one and the same force, 

 varying only in its manifestations. This doctrine may 

 be admitted, without by any means implying that Force 

 is a real entity, a Thing in itself, distinct from all its 

 phenomenal manifestations to our organs. Supposing the 

 doctrine true, the several kinds of phenomena which it iden- 

 tifies in respect of their origin would nevertheless remain diffe- 

 rent facts ; facts which would be causes of one another 

 reciprocally causes and effects, which is the first element in the 

 form of causation properly called transformation. What the 

 doctrine contains more than this, is, that in each of these cases 

 of reciprocal causation, the causes are reproduced without 

 alteration in quantity. This is what takes place in the trans- 

 formations of matter : when water has been converted into 

 hydrogen and oxygen, these can be reconverted into precisely 

 the same quantity of water from which they were produced. 

 To establish a corresponding law in regard to Force, it has to 

 be proved that heat is capable of being converted into elec- 

 tricity, electricity into chemical action, chemical action into 

 mechanical force, and mechanical force back again into the 

 exact quantity of heat which was originally expended ; and so 



