AN'D MODERN* PHYSICS. 215 



supposed action at a distance is for the first time proved. 

 This fact forms the philosophic result of the experiments, and 

 indeed, in a certain sense, the most important result. The 

 proof includes a recognition of the fact that the electric forces 

 can disentangle themselves from material bodies, and can 

 continue to subsist as conditions or changes in the state of 

 space. The details of the exi>eriments further prove that the 

 particular manner in which the electric force is propagated 

 exhibits the closest analogy* with the propagation of light; 

 indeed, that it corresponds almost completely to it. The 

 hypothesis that light is an electrical phenomenon is thus nude 

 highly probable. To give a strict proof of this hyi*>thesU 

 would logically require experiments upon light itself. 



** What we here indicate as having Ixjen accomplished by 

 the experiments is accomplished indej undent ly of the correct- 

 ness of particular theories. Nevertheless, there is an obvious 

 connection between the experiments and the theory in connec- 

 tion with which they were really undertaken. Since the year 

 18G1 science has been in ]K>ssession of a theory which Maxwell 

 constructed upon Faraday's views, and which we therefore 

 call the Faraday-Maxwell theory. This theory alKrms the 

 l>ossibility of the class of phenomena here discovered just as 

 |>ositively as the remaining electrical theories are comj>elled 

 to deny it. From the outset Maxwell's theory excelled all 

 others in elegance and in the abundance of the relations 

 between the various phenomena which it included. 



44 The probability of this theory, and therefore the number 

 of its adherents, increased from year to year. JUit us long as 

 Maxwell's theory depended solely ui>on the probability of its 

 results, and not on the certainty of its hyjxrt hoses, it could not 

 completely displace the theories which were opposed to it. 



**The fundamental hyi>otheses of Maxwell's theory con- 

 tradicted the usual views, and did not rest ujion the evidence 

 of decisive experiments. In this connection we ran best 

 characterise the object and the result of our exieriments by 



* The analogy docs not consist only in tho agreement between 

 the more or loss accurately me isurcd velocities. Tho approximately 

 l velocity is only one element among many others. 



