50 Vital Physics. 



It need scarcely be said that outside astronomy it never was 

 supposed to exist. 



If it be granted that axoidal motion is obtained by two 

 distinct forces, the repellent and attractive, naturally antago- 

 nizing each other, how, it is asked, is the orbital motion 

 obtained ? By a third motion or force, namely, the 

 tangental. This force or direction of motion, it will be 

 said, has already been disposed of as being destroyed by its 

 direction being lost by the axoidal motion. Truly, such has 

 been maintained when axoidal motion has to be sustained 

 by one isolated force, the attractive, and the tangent left as 

 the only remaining line of motion, which acted in antago- 

 nism to the centralizing direction of attraction ; for in such 

 case it has to fulfil the double function of axoidal and 

 orbital motion, which motions are in many respects inde- 

 pendent of each other, and perfectly distinct in their line of 

 direction. But if the axoidal motion is already accomplished 

 by the joint action of two distinct and antagonizing forces, 

 the tangent only directing the antagonism in a fixed 

 and constant course, which is the exact function for 

 which it is called in, then all that is wanted receives its 

 full accomplishment by admitting the tangental motion 

 to start the orbital, and with it the axoidal, and no more. 



If the two forces were of exactly equal acceleration, the 

 tangental would simply produce orbital motion, for, no 

 balance being lost by unequal acceleration, axoidal motion 

 could have no existence ; for axoidal motion for its pro- 

 duction demands, not only opposing forces, but also that 

 those forces be unequal in their degrees of accelera- 

 tion, one moving more rapidly or else more slowly than 

 the other. 



That the repellent force is distinct from the attractive, in 

 that it is in proportion to the mass, and not directly as the 

 mass, one or two suggestions will be given tending to prove it. 



