1042 Dynamic Theory. 



movement of the ether becomes mass motion, and much more is em- 

 ployed in changing the state of the ether in the body acted upon. The 

 undulatory movements of the external ether come into collision with 

 those polar movements of the internal ether that constitute chemical 

 and cohesive attraction, the result being more heat, or the development 

 of electricity; or the elevation of the temperature may promote chemi- 

 cal changes not before possible. Probably in all cases cohesion of the 

 molecules for each other is counteracted, and in nearly all the intermo- 

 lecular spaces are increased. Solid bismuth, and ice at about the 

 freezing temperature, are exceptions, as they both contract on being 

 heated. The purely mechanical nature of all these movements becomes 

 the more apparent as they are examined, and the continuity of move- 

 ment from the imponderable to the ponderable takes place evidently not 

 only witnout a break but without the necessity of supposing a form of 

 motion not familiar among ponderable and visible bodies. As the dif- 

 ferent behavior of the atoms under the impulses of heat is due to dif- 

 ference in their weight which varies from hydrogen 1, to uranium about 

 240, so there are differences in their chemism, cohesion, &c. , due to 

 their form, and the way in which their pieces are put together. For we 

 are not by any means to consider the chemical atoms as the ultimate 

 condition of matter. Such weighty atoms as those of gold, platinum, 

 tungsten, mercury, lead, bismuth, thorium, &c. , must contain much 

 more matter than those of hydrogen, lithium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, 

 &c. In all probability gravitation is an actual measure of quantity in 

 matter. If we should suppose that bodies are endowed with gravita- 

 tion in different degrees, as they are with chemism and magnetism in 

 different degrees, it would follow that the weights of bodies as they 

 might be carried up from the earth, would vary in different ratios, and 

 the law of gravity would vary in different parts of the universe. 



The most reasonable hypothesis is that there are gravitation atoms 

 much smaller than the chemical atoms. Let us call them atomicules. 

 They are the original forms of ponderable matter, whose dissolution, if 

 that were possible, would reduce them to the imponderable ether. 

 They are all alike as to shape, size, and the quantity of matter they 

 contain. Each is surrounded by a definite sphere of the elastic im- 

 ponderable ether which is endowed with a polar motion that constitutes 

 for the atomicule its attraction of gravitation. This endowment and 

 this motion are still not original states or conditions, but the matter of 

 the atomicule and its sphere all in motion, are specialized particles of 

 the infinite and eternal ocean of ether ; as the little whirlpools along 

 the margin of a flood are specialized portions of water. And as the 

 circular motion of the water is a continuation of part of the current of 

 the flood in such new form as the constitution and conditions of the 



