402 Scientific Intelligence. 
3. All the atoms are “tied together,” no matter how remote they 
be, by lines of mutual force, along which the vibrations proceed, and 
in which attractions operate. 
4. The imaginary nuclei, or “ little independent particles,” of the old 
hypothesis are of no use in explaining gravitation, or any other of the 
more extended.powers cf matter ; all the effects which we witness are 
due’ solely to the forces, and not to any real nuclei; we may therefore 
wer them as. unnecessary, together with the ether. 
5. “¢ I do not perceive in any part of space any thing but forces, and 
the lines in. which they are exerted.” 
_ 6.“ Mossoti has shown that seo ietbastibis aggregation, electric force, 
and electro-chemical action, may all have one common connection, or 
origin ; and so, in their actions at a.distance, have they not in ies 
that infinite scope which some of these actions are known to possess.” 
. 7. “In the view now set forth, the forces of the atomic centers we 
meppones to pervade (and make) all bodies and to penetrate all space.” 
eether was supposed to do the same, but was divided by cer- 
tain. centers, from which it acted: These centers are now taken to be 
the same with those of the material atoms; and thus. the ether van- 
ishes.* : : 
Mr. Whelpley begins his argument with the assumption, that. the 
true idea of an atom must be attained by a simple induction from the 
properties of the mass, to the properties of the particle. That by this 
method alone can such an idea be attained. Thus, (1. ) if every mass 
gravitates, every atom gravitates. (2. ) If every mass js in electric re- 
lation to all other masses, every atom is in the same relation. (4-) If 
masses are elastic and expansible in change of temperature, atoms are 
the same. (4.) If masses become. gaseous, itis the atom itself which 
suffers this increase of repulsion. (5.) If masses chemically combin- 
ed interpenetrate and lose their proper characteristics, atoms do the 
same... (6.).If masses are always bipolar, or multipolar, in their rela- 
tions to other masses, atoms are the same. (7.) Finally, if all the 
properties of a mass may be reduced to certain repulsions and attrac- 
tions, acting from and about certain centers, (as it.is certain they can), 
the atom itself must be conceived of, as composed in like manner. of 
certain forces acting in the same manner. 
. The effect of this method .of induction is to establish the idea of an 
atom upon natural and philosophical grounds. ‘Thus, by the old axiom, 
“that a thing cannot act where it is not,” which is a known condition 
rembed eo eee 
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Reece Philos bi i Magazine e, and — of 
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