392 Miscellanies. 



1. There exists in the immensity of space, vast electro-motive 

 bodies, formed of ponderable matter, which act mutually upon each 

 other at infinite distances, by means of imponderable fluids. 



2. The electric fluids whose existence is proved by their action on 

 the organs of sense, and by the general phenomena, must be consid- 

 ered as the universal cause of attraction and repulsion, as well as of 

 the aberrations which the great masses of matter undergo. 



3. These fluids produce an attraction of the masses when their cur- 

 rents are in the same direction and move with an unequal intensity ; 

 they produce a contrary effect when the currents are in opposite di- 

 rections and move with an equal intensity. 



4. The solar fluid, or resinous electricity is the universal agent in 

 the motions of life. The solar action cannot be considered abstract- 

 edly; according to tlie opinion of the polarists, if we admit polar 

 forces, or those of attraction and repulsion without the intervention 

 of electric fluids, is to slide into ontology. 



5. Light and heat are effects of the action of these fluids upon the 

 sensitive system of men and animals. Caloric results from their com- 

 bination or neutralization. 



6. Life, which is only a succession of atoms and physico-chemical, 

 intra-organic combinations cannot be maintained but by means of the 

 action of these fluids, combined or uncombined, upon organic bodies. 



7. These organisms are formed of component molecules and inte- 

 gral molecules ; they are endowed with electro-chemical properties, 

 like the particles of inorganic matter, but of a difiercnt degree of in- 

 tensity. 



8. All organic functions produce only molecular actions and com- 

 binations, occasioned by electric currents whose intensity and duration 

 are subordinate to the action of oxygen of the solar fluid, and of cal- 

 oric upon the living body. 



9. Death is only the complete and deflnitive cessation of these ac- 

 tions, of these electro-chemical combinations, and of the phenomena 

 which result from them. 



10. There is a remarkable connection betvi^een the universal laws 

 and those of organic bodies ; — -the first maybe subjected to mathemat- 

 ical calculation, by reason of their simplicity ; the second, more com- 

 plicated, can be perfectly known only by pursuing the positive method, 

 or that which is founded on observation, on experiments, and on rea- 

 soning ; — -by combining the notions acquired by means of the methods 

 apriori and a 'posteriori as we nov/ regard them ; — in short, by follow- 

 ing the precept of Bacon : Qui tractaverunt scicntias, aiit cmpirici 

 ant dogmaiici fuerunt, Empirici, formiccB more, congcrunt tantum 

 etutuntur ; rationales, aranearuni more, tclasexse conficimit. Apis 

 Vero ratio media est, qua", materiam ex florihus horti ct agri elicit, scd 



