42 Vital Physics. 



centripetal force, which acts perpendicularly to the tangent. 

 Hence, when a body revolves in a circular orbit by means 

 of a force directed to the centre of the circle, the centripetal 

 and centrifugal forces will be equal ; but in every other case 

 the latter of these forces will exceed the former, and will tend 

 not to the centre of force but to the centre of the circle of 

 curvature, corresponding to the infinitely small arc of the 

 orbit in which the body is moving at the given instant. It 

 is obvious that the centrifugal force has no positive existence. 

 It merely arises from the resistance offered by the inertia of 

 the body, in virtue of which the latter tends to persevere in 

 a straight line."* 



Now, cold is the condition in which attraction acts 

 without the counterpoise of heat, and in chemistry it is 

 nothing ; heat in chemistry is the real force, and it repels 

 particle from particle. 



In astronomy, the repellent force, or centrifugal force, 

 as it is called, is inertia i.e., do nothing, till a tap is given, 

 or something starts off motion ; and that tap is the 

 full extent of all repulsive force from the first start until 

 now, and though continually drawn from this tangent 

 towards the centre, yet it is unsubdued, and is as fast as 

 ever, trying to break off into the straight line of the tan- 

 gent, from inertia or nothing at all ; whilst attraction is 

 the active force busily engaged in bringing about the ruin 

 of this first tap, and though it has been at it for ages, yet 

 it cannot, with all its activity, subdue this first slight tap 

 or start. Hence the attractive power in astronomy is entirely 

 master of the ceremonies, and the repellent power is nothing 

 at all it is a mere cypher, a nonentity ; but in chemistry 

 the repellent power is the lord paramount, and settles all 

 difficulties under the name of caloric, and the attractive 

 power becoming more and more developed as heat is with- 



* Note in Grant's " Physical Astronomy," page 23. 



