^o 



be (lra\vTi between the laws that govern matter, aud 

 those that he asserts control mind. In fact, he is dared 

 to do this, and is promised, as a result of his research, 

 utter discomfiture. He at once proceeds to do so by 

 drawing parallels. For example, the pen-knife in his 

 pocket has no magnetic power, but let him rub it along 

 the pole of a magnet and the peculiar property of 

 attraction in the magnet is communicated to the steel 

 blade at once, without reducing this mysterious power 

 of the mao;net. Let the friction be reversed and this 

 virtue is lost again. This inter-change can be carried 

 on indefinitely. Here is a wonderful property induced 

 and lost by gentle friction in a hard metal. How 

 would it do to say that this manifestation of magnetic 

 iron is a function 'i I take a piece of cold steel and a 

 lamina of equally cold flint, and go out on a Canadian 

 winter night, with the thermometer ranging from 30° to 

 40° below zero. I strike them together ; heat and light 

 are evolved from most unlikely substances under ex- 

 ternal conditions unfavorable to both. Would a phi- 

 losopher call these evolved phenomena functions of 

 matter ? A savage on a lone island has lost his fire, 

 and at once the friction of two pieces of wood eliminates 

 heat and kindles into activity that power called fire. 

 Why not call this element a secretion of any substance 

 in which it resides, from which it can be abstracted, 

 aud which is the resultant of inherent forces as potent 

 and active as in any organ of the body? Experiment 

 shows that the active motion of all such bodies, whether 

 by friction, l)y chemical union, or by vital processes, only 

 make manifest these powders, but we would fly in the 

 face of scientific investigation Avere we to say that all 

 such forces which correlate were productions of these 

 media. The molecules of tlie nervous tissues are put in 

 simihir activity by the irritation of contact, friction or 



