September 26, 19 12] 



NATURE 



William Higgins and the Imponderable Elements. 



It is interesting to compare the semi-propiietic 

 speculations of Oersted as so ably stated by Prof. 

 Silvanus Thompson in Nature of August 29 with a 

 theory put forward by William Higgins in a book 

 published at Dublin in 1814. This worli, entitled 

 "Experiments and Observations on the Atomic 

 Theory and Electrical Phenomena," was primarily 

 intended to prove that Dalton's theory had been 

 anticipated by the author in 1789,' but some thirty 

 pages in the early part of the book are devoted to a 

 statement of his views on the "imponderable 

 elements." 



The following extracts may serve to give some idea 

 of the nature of his surmises : — 



" The ultimate particles of ponderable matter are 

 exceedingly minute, but those of imponderable 

 elements, such as caloric, electricity, and light, are so 

 beyond calculation. The utmost stretch of the human 

 mind can no more estimate the size of those particles 

 than it can measure space and duration. However, 

 their divisibilitv is limited" (p. 24). 



"Every ultimate particle of a metal is surrounded 

 with a small although dense atmosphere of caloric, 

 together with a small portion of the electric or some 

 other subtile fluid . . . when two atoms unite, the 

 compound becoines surrounded with one common 

 atmosphere of caloric and rejects a third atom of 

 either of its constituents " (p. 13 et seq.). 



" When two ultimate particles unite chemically their 

 individuality is destroyed, and they form one solid 

 atom whose capacity is less than its constituents 

 in a detached or simple state, hence it is that caloric 

 is liberated by chemical union. These atoms how- 

 ever retain a sufficient quantity of caloric to furnish 

 them with atmospheres " (p. 20). 



" The ultimate particles of different kinds of matter, 

 whether in a solid or gaseous state, do not retain the 

 same quantity of caloric in their respective atmo- 

 spheres. This probably is occasioned by their different 

 forcesof attraction to it. Those particles which attract 

 caloric with most force are surrounded with more of 

 it, in a less space than those particles that attract it 

 with a smaller force " (p. iq). 



"Solids also contain a prodigious quantity of caloric, 

 as may be shewn by deflagrating together nitre, 

 brimstone, and crude antimony, reduced to powder, 

 and intimately mixed " (p. 25). 



"Caloric and the electric fluid are antagonistic 

 elements, whereas light and caloric seem to be kind 

 and almost constant associates. The light of the sun, 

 and that produced by artificial means, are accom- 

 panied by caloric " (p. 40). 



Good conductors are those part of the caloric of 

 which is capable of being readily replaced by the elec- 

 tric fluid. " Dry oxides are non-conductors, as their 

 calorific atmospheres are small and strongly attached 

 to their atoms " (p. 43'). 



The electric spark inflames gunpowder or alcohol 

 owing to " caloric which is disengaged from these sub- 

 stances or from the air in contact with them." Wires 

 are fused by a battery because of " a rapid dislodge- 

 ment of the specific heat of the metals by the electric 

 matter," and since a wire remains heated during the 

 passage of a current the electric fluid "must also 

 possess the power of urging on, during its passage, 

 through the battery and conductors, a sufficiency of 

 caloric to supply the waste occasioned by the ignition " 

 fp. 26 c't seq.). 



In similar fashion he " explains " the lumin- 

 osity of meteors, why the electric spark causes 

 combustion between oxygen and hydrogen, and 



1 Sec Meldrum, C/i^m. JVfu's. iqio. for a discussion of his claims on this 

 point. 



wiiy earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are ac- 

 companied by thunder and lightning. The pro- 

 duction of heat in Rumford's experiment he admits 

 presents a difficulty, and suggests that it might be 

 due to the displacement of some of the specific heat 

 by electricity, which, it was well known, could be 

 produced by friction. He precedes this by saydng that 

 "Heat evolved by friction, however unaccountable and 

 mysterious it may appear, is not sufficient to in- 

 validate the doctrine of the materiality of caloric, 

 being only a solitary fact opposed to thousands that 

 tend to establish its existence as an elementary sub- 

 stance" (p. 37). 



He concludes this part of his work with a touch 

 of the true Baconian philosophy: — "The theory, or 

 rather the hypothesis, which I have advanced, on 

 electrical phenomena . . . according to my knowledge 

 is quite new." "So fully convinced am I, at present, 

 of the truth of this doctrine that no vague or super- 

 ficial objections will be able to stagger my creed ; at 

 the same time, I am ready to submit to convincing 

 facts and arguments, for truth should be the sole 

 object of every writer on philosophical subjects " 

 (p. 45 et seq.). ■ 



It will be seen that his speculations, though crude, 

 and, of course, erroneous in the light of modern 

 theory, are none the less characterised by considerable 

 lucidity in expression and no little ingenuity in appli- 

 cation. In this connection we may well remember 

 the words of Liebig : "."Ml our views have been 

 developed from errors." From the flashing embers 

 of fallacy springs the Phcenix of Truth. 



A. U. N. 



London, W.C., September i. 



NO. 2239, VOL. 90] 



Glaciation and Striation. 



Prof. Cole (Nature, September 12, p. 37) would 

 scarcely maintain the assumption that the stones seen 

 in Boulder Clay were in the " englacial " distribution 

 of the materials in closer juxtaposition than we find 

 them in the deposit itself. The tendency of the 

 larger stones to gravitate towards the bottom of the 

 moving and shearing ice-mass through liquefaction 

 and regelation is well illustrated in the Harlow 

 "till." But Prof. Cole seems to forget that a "con- 

 glomerate with an ice-cement " would give us a glacial 

 gravel or a " schotter " on the melting of the ice, 

 and not a Boulder Clay. The efficiency as a graving- 

 tool of a grain of quartz or of some harder mineral 

 when caught between the contact-surfaces of two 

 fragments of rock undergoing differential movement 

 can scarcely be doubted. 



.As to the pre-Boulder Clay age of the " Ipswich 

 man," the evidence of which I have examined on the 

 spot, the attention of Mr. J. R. Moir (ibid., p. 38) and 

 others may be fairly directed to the new light thrown 

 upon the question by the Thorley section. 



With reference to scratches on flints, I venture to 

 ask Sir Rav Lankester whether in plate 17 of his 

 monograph fPhil. Trans. R.S., Series B, vol. ccii., 

 pp. 2(33 ff-) he has not overlooked (i) the fact that 

 the striations shown in Fig. i are on the original 

 cortex of the flint-nodule, and therefore not neces- 

 sarily connected with glaciation, and (2) the prob- 

 ability that the markings shown in Fig. 2 (enlarged 

 in Figs. 3, 4. 5) are the etched-out skeletons of some 

 spongoid fossil, by humus acids acting differentially 

 as a solvent on the various modifications of the silica 

 found often in the same flint-nodule? Of such differ- 

 ential solvent action I have a large collection of 

 examples, in some cases showing corrosion to the 

 extent of the complete obliteration of the lithological 

 character of the flint a^ ;^iH'h. A. Irving. 



Bishop's Stortford, September 17. 



