COMPLEXITY OF THE FORCE. 101 



results as obtained by Reichenbach, will not be disputed by 

 those who know the character of the experimenter, or w r ho, 

 from a careful perusal of his report, have noted his exceedingly 

 cautious mode of proceeding. Reichenbach is known through 

 out Europe as a chemist second only to Liebig himself, and, 

 speaking of this same course of investigation, Professor 

 Gregory declares that " it was not possible for any experi- 

 ments or discoveries to be presented to the scientific world by 

 one more entitled to confidence in every point of view." Be- 

 sides this, his more important experiments have been repeated 

 by others, and their results verified, in many instances, both 

 in this country and in Europe. 



Availing himself of the plasticity of the German language, 

 Reichenbach designates the new force (rather forces) which he 

 discovered, by the German suffix "00?," and indicates the 

 sources whence this force is obtained, by their names prefixed 

 to that syllable, as "magnetod," " crystalled," " thermod," 

 " photod," etc., as respectively indicating a connection of the 

 force with magnets, crystals, heat, light, etc. In the English 

 language, therefore, this new imponderable has been rather 

 clumsily designated as the " odic force," or " odylic force." 



But the various phenomena exhibited by this so-called force, 

 show that it is not simple but complex, or rather that it in- 

 volves a number of distinct forces. Its rudimental existence 

 in the closed magnet, as also in various unmagnetic bodies, 

 was not only intimated by the luminous and incandescent ap- 

 pearance of the bodies of metals, before spoken of, but is also 

 implied as an antecedent of the luminous, flame-like appear- 

 ance which it engenders at a further stage of development 

 just as the existence of common caloric is implied as an ante- 

 cedent of common flame. The light itself is a second devel- 

 opment ; and the ethereal aura which, without any luminous 



