SECT. XXXIV. ETHEREAL MEDIUM MAGNETIC. 357 



the same with paramagnetism, and the polarity of the magnetic 

 force in iron and bismuth is one and the same. 



The ethereal medium may be presumed to transmit the gravi- 

 tating force ; it transmits the magnetism of the solar spots, its 

 undulations constitute light, heat, and all the influences bound 

 up in the solar beam ; and the most perfect vacuum we can make 

 is capable of transmitting mechanical energy in enormous quan- 

 tities, some of which differ but little from that of air or oxygen 

 at an ordinary barometric pressure ; and why not thus admit, says 

 Mr. Thomson, the magnetic property, of which we know so little 

 that we have no right to pronounce a negative ? 



Mr. Waterstone is also of opinion that it would be taking too 

 narrow a view if we limited the function of the luminiferoua 

 ether to the conveying of physical pulses only. The atmosphere 

 also conveys physical pulses, but that is the least important of 

 its functions in the economy of nature. There is nothing that 

 should hinder us attributing to the media concerned in the 

 radiation of light and heat the higher functions of electrical 

 polarity and gravitation. The special dynamic arrangements 

 by which this is effected may ever elude our research ; but as 

 there is no limit to the vis viva (N. 222) which such media 

 may conserve in their minutest parts, so there is no physical 

 impossibility in that vis viva being suddenly transferred to the 

 molecules of ordinary matter in the proportion and sequence 

 required to carry out the order and system of nature. 



The fundamental principle of action in such media must be 

 in accordance with elastic impact, for upon that the dynamic 

 theory of heat and conservation of force rests as a foundation. 

 The statical and dynamical characteristics of gravitation and 

 transfusion of force conform to it, so that all the forces that 

 hold the molecules of bodies together must also be in subjection 

 to it.* 



* Phil. Mag. for May 1858. 



