NATURE 



49: 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1900. 



A MAGNETIC THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE. 

 From Matter to Man; a Neiv Theory of the Universe. 



By A. Redcote Dewar. Pp. 289 + viii. (London : 



Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1898.) 



WE do not recommend this work to the serious 

 attention of our readers, but as a study in 

 word-stringing it is not devoid of interest. It appears 

 to be the production of a writer who has acquired a know- 

 ledge of scientific terms by extensive reading, without 

 having any real grasp of the vast range of subjects over 

 which he travels. The result is such as might have been 

 arrived at by a student who had been through a hurried 

 course of cram, and who at his final examination had 

 been set some such question as this : — Given, a 

 vocabulary of scientific terms, construct a theory of 

 the universe. 



The author is strong on magnetism. We have never 

 met with such a liberal use of this term as is indulged in 

 by Mr. Dewar. Like the "vapours" which afflicted our 

 ancestors in the last century, and which accounted for all 

 their ailments, the word magnetism accounts for nearly 

 everything in Mr. Dewar's universe. It is in the fifth 

 chapter that the stupendous importance of this form of 

 energy is first sprung upon the reader : — 



"The inference from this basis [that every atom is a 

 magnet] is astounding, for not only does it involve the 

 magnetism of the earth as well as the magnetism of all 

 the constituents of the earth, but it establishes beyond a 

 doubt the magnetism of all the products of the earth — 

 mineral, iiegetal and animal. Every crystal, plant, 

 animal and man is thus a magnet, whose every energy — 

 muscular, nervous, vital, or mental — resolves itself into 

 the familiar operations of magnetism." 



" Still further, as all the planets and heavenly bodies 

 are alike in nature, so far as we can judge from analogy, 

 so must they be governed by similar energy to the earth. 

 Hence we reach the final conclusion, that the bottom 

 energy of the universe is also magnetism" (pp. 72-73). 



Having once become impregnated with this universal 

 magnetic cult, the reader, who may otherwise have been 

 unprepared for the series of mental shocks which is in 

 store for him, will learn with comparative calmness that 

 the difference of gravity at the equator and the poles is 

 because the earth is a magnet (p. 69) ; he will feel sure 

 that sooner or later "animal magnetism" mesmerism, 

 lK:c., are bound to appear on the scene, and in this he 

 will not be disappointed (p. 87) ; and he may even learn 

 with equanimity that he possesses " a virtual magnetic 

 battery" in his "vacuole or stomach " (p. 85). In the 

 chapter on the causes of vegetal evolution we read : — 



"These huge internal fires [of the earth] are virtually 

 the eart/i's magnetic battery, through which it is kept in 

 life as a living planet tenanted with vegetal and animal 

 life ; hence, when all conditions are suitable, and the 

 soil is properly saturated with water, thereby inducing 

 suitable chemical action, the internal magnetic forces 

 throw up a clotted vegetation on every available spot of 

 ground on the globe. This vegetation is but a bristling 

 beard of earthly material ejected by the earth's mag- 

 netism; filaments of matter, having the same relation to 

 the earth as a man's beard to his chin, or as the bristling 

 iron filings on a horse-shoe magnet" (p. 162). 



NO. 1612, VOL, 62] 



It must be admitted that the force of magnetism can 

 no further go, and the attributing to this agency of the 

 vegetable-like accumulation of snow-drift on a projecting 

 obstacle (p. 124), or the turning of a sun-flower towards 

 the sun (p. 137), may be accepted as a mere bagatelle. 

 Truly, as the author says, after having evolved " vegetal 

 molecules" by a "chance flux of suitable atoms," the 

 "magnetic laws are equal to all emergencies " (p. 159). 

 The subtle distinction between a horse-shoe magnet as a 

 dry magnet, and a plant as a wet tnagnet (p. 161) is too 

 fine for any but ultra-metaphysical minds to grasp, but 

 since it leads to the practical conclusion that a flower-pot 

 full of moist earth is an artificial plant battery, it may be 

 allowed to pass by virtue of its horticultural merits. 



We confess that, in turning over the pages of this 

 astonishing production with the object of endeavouring to 

 learn the author's viev/s, we have been so fascinated by 

 his glib manipulation of the affairs of the universe, that 

 we have allowed ourselves but little time for a critical 

 examination of his scientific data. In fact, the work may 

 be said to consist mainly of generalities, so that there are 

 but few detailed statements to. grasp. Here are a few 

 specimens : — 



The law of combination in definite proportions is illus- 

 trated (p. 58) by the statement that " if 20 parts of oxygen 

 be mixed with 6 of hydrogen, only 16 parts of oxygen and 

 2 of hydrogen unite, 8 parts remain uncombined." This 

 error is driven home in the following page : — 



" Innumerable elements, for instance, may often meet 

 in suitable conditions for combination, but if unsuitable 

 in proportion, no selection ensues ; consequently there is 

 no production," &c. 



Hydrogen is said to be a constituent of saltpetre (p. 79). 



"If a lot of chips be thrown into the water they all 

 attract each other and form a mass" (p. 87). This is 

 explained by the statement that sticks and stones require 

 " stick and stone magnets to magnetise them." 



" Contrasted with chemical combination, chemical 

 decomposition has been almost ignored by chemists'* 

 (p. lOl). 



" Magnetic induction " is used to explain the crystal- 

 lisation of a solid from a solution (p. 1 18). 



After describing the movements of a "geometer" 

 caterpillar, the author says : " Other caterpillars and 

 centipedes develop feet on each ring" (p. 198). 



" The fire-flies of America, which, Diogenes-like, carry 

 a lamp with them," are classed with the bombardier 

 beetle, both the light of the former and the discharge of 

 the latter being described as "undoubtedly the result of 

 electric action " (p. 201). 



It need hardly be said that the propounder of a new 

 philosophy — such as Mr. Dewar claims to be — must clear 

 away the rubbish of previous thinkers before he can lay 

 the foundations of his own system. Many of the current 

 doctrines are accordingly denounced in no measured 

 terms, and the author's emendations launched at the 

 reader. For example, the classification of matter into 

 simple and compound substances by chemists is scoffed 

 at (p. 55), and here is Mr. Dewar's amendment : — 



" From unlimited corroborative evidence we believe 

 this [duality or sexuality in elementary substances] to be 

 the case ; hence we enunciate as one of the funda- 

 mentals of the new Materialism that the normal chemical 



Y 



