246 FE. B. Hunt on the Nature of Forces. 
To illustrate this, let us assume along the axis of X, (fig. 2), 
a line or thread of atoms, at mutual distances corresponding to a 
2. 
A 
Wii) 
be KI 

particular solid or liquid, and acting on each other according to 
the Boscovich force curve: call the atoms to the left of the orl- 
gin A, B, C, D, &c., and those to the right, 1, 2, 3, 4, &c. Jn 
Vol. I. of Robison’s Mechanical Philosophy, there is an exposition 
of Boscovich’s theory, to which most of his disciples are indebt- 
ed for their acquaintance with his views, and in this, the widest 
limit of cohesion is fixed at about one-thousandth of an inch, 
within which are several alternations of attraction and repulsion 
branches. Now by comparing this distance with the almost 1n- 
finitely minuter threads, membranes, eye-points, &c. revealed by 
the microscope in infusorial and other organic forms, or with any 
of the countless facts showing the extreme divisibility of matter 
and the differential character of interatomic distances, it will be 
come evident that many thousands of atoms lie within this outer 
limit of cohesion, or in the one-thousandth of an inch measure 
in a mass. . Boscovich in his Theoria leaves the case essentially 
in the same condition. Hence the afoms A, B, C, D, &c., on é 
left of the origin act on 1, 2, 3, 4, &c. on the right of the origin, 
the attractions and repulsions alternating through many thousands 
of atoms on each hand. e atom A repels or attracts 1, 2, | 
4, &c. according to distance, all atoms exterior to the last limit ° 
Robison’s Mechanical Philosophy, Daubeney’s Atomic Theory, 
Bartlett’s Mechanics, &c., it will be seen that the outermost wie 
