ON THE PHYSICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 



183 



foremost intellects are still busy in working this to 

 them promising vein of reasoning. 1 



The opponents of the kinetic, mechanical, or material 

 views of natural phenomena have always existed : in the 

 early years of the century they described their view by 

 the word " dynamic." At that time it was the atomic 

 theory they principally objected to. But their criticisms, 

 though not without use in exposing the limited nature 

 of all mechanical explanations, failed to yield any fruits, 

 inasmuch as they moved in vague expressions and did 

 not lend themselves to that powerful method by which 

 alone the conquest of nature has been effected, viz., mathe- 

 matical reasoning, combined with observation. 



The more recent critics of the mechanical interpreta- 

 tion of physical phenomena, among whom I will only 

 mention Prof. Ostwald of Leipzig, Prof. G. Helm of 

 Dresden, and Prof. Ernst Mach of Vienna, 2 are fully 



51. 



Criticism of 

 mechanical 

 view. 



1 " With reference to the vortex- 

 atom theory, I do not know of any 

 phenomenon which is manifestly 

 incapable of being explained by it ; 

 and personally I generally endeav- 

 our (often without success) to 

 picture to myself some kind of 

 vortex-ring mechanism to account 

 for the phenomenon with which I 

 am dealing. ... I regard the 

 vortex-atom explanation as the goal 

 at which to aim," &c. (Prof. J. J. 

 Thomson, quoted ibid. ) 



2 Prof. Ernst Mach is the earliest 

 of these writers and had worked on 

 quite independent lines before the 

 other two names began to figure in 

 scientific literature. His criticisms 

 refer both to metaphysical and 

 mechanical theories. His position 

 is original and unique, and his 

 writings, which are a splendid 

 example of critical and historical 



analysis, have been invaluable to 

 me. His earliest important essays 

 date from the year 1872 (' Die 

 Geschichte und die Wurzel des 

 Satzes von der Erhaltung der 

 Arbeit,' and ' Die Gestalten der 

 Fliissigkeiteu,' Prag). They are 

 now generally accessible, having 

 been collected and translated 

 (under the title 'Scientific Lec- 

 tures,' Chicago, 1895) by Prof. 

 T. J. M'Cormack. His ' Science of 

 Mechanics' (translated by the same 

 author from the second German 

 edition, London and Chicago, 1893) 

 has, ever since its first appearance 

 in 1883, had a great influence in 

 Germany ; and latterly also in this 

 country, as may be seen from such 

 works as Prof. Karl Pearson's 

 'Grammar of Science' (1st ed., 

 1892, p. 387), and notably from 

 Prof. Love's ' Dynamics ' (p. 85). 



