368 Thoughts on Ray-vibrations. [1846. 



various metallic and other bodies ; the means of affecting it by 

 heat or cold ; the way in which conducting bodies by combina- 

 tion enter into the constitution of non-conducting substances, 

 and the contrary ; and the actual existence of one elementary 

 body, carbon, both in the conducting and non-conducting state. 

 The power of electric conduction (being a transmission of force 

 equal in velocity to that of light) appears to be tied up in and 

 dependent upon the properties of the matter, and is, as it were, 

 existent in them. 



I suppose we may compare together the matter of the ether 

 and ordinary matter (as, for instance, the copper of the wire 

 through which the electricity is conducted), and consider them 

 as alike in their essential constitution ; i. e. either as both 

 composed of little nuclei, considered in the abstract as matter, 

 and of force or power associated with these nuclei, or else both 

 consisting of mere centres of force, according to Boscovich's 

 theory and the view put forth in my speculation ; for there is 

 no reason to assume that the nuclei are more requisite in the 

 one case than in the other. It is true that the copper gravitates 

 and the ether does not, and that therefore the copper is 

 ponderable and the ether is not ; but that cannot indicate the 

 presence of nuclei in the copper more than in the ether, for of 

 all the powers of matter gravitation is the one in which the 

 force extends to the greatest possible distance from the supposed 

 nucleus, being infinite in relation to the size of the latter, and 

 reducing that nucleus to a mere centre of force. The smallest 

 atom of matter on the earth acts directly on the smallest atom 

 of matter in the sun, though they are 95,000,000 of miles apart ; 

 further, atoms, which, to our knowledge, are at least nineteen 

 times that distance, and indeed, in cometary masses, far more, 

 are in a similar way tied together by the lines of force extending 

 from and belonging to each. What is there in the condition 

 of the particles of the supposed ether, if there be even only one 

 such particle between us and the sun, that can in subtilty and 

 extent compare to this ? 



Let us not be confused by the ponderability and gravitation 

 of heavy matter, as if they proved the presence of the abstract 

 nuclei ; these are due not to the nuclei, if they exist at all, 

 but to the force superadded to them ; and, if the ether par- 

 ticles be without this force, which according to the assump- 

 tion is the case, then they are more material, in the abstract 



