448 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. Ko. 299. 



presents a small portion of his notes. They 

 seem to him to show that the article in 

 question is composed, essentially, of three 

 different kinds of writing. The first kind de- 

 scribes Mr. Tesla's experiments in electricity 

 and shows what he has already accomplished. 

 This work is, no doubt, important. Its value 

 will be appraised by experts. The present 

 writer has no claim to be considered an elec- 

 trical expert and does not attempt to give an 

 estimate of the achievements referred to. The 

 second describes what Mr. Tesla expects to ac- 

 complish in the future. His prophecies are so 

 sanguine, in many cases, that even a general 

 reader may presume to compare them with the 

 comparatively small things already accom- 

 plished and to point out how very unlikely it 

 is that any great part of his expectations will 

 be realized within any reasonable future — 

 within Mr. Tesla's own lifetime, for example. 



The third element of this article consists of 

 philosophical arguments about things in general 

 — about human life — what it is — the future of 

 the solar system — the solidarity of the human 

 race — the Christian religion — vegetable food — 

 theoretical dynamics — athletics in colleges — 

 drinking water — ozone — education of women — 

 ice — fertilizers — insanity — warfare — flying ma- 

 chines — iron manufacture — aluminium — liquid 

 air — self acting engines — the inhabitants of 

 Mars — etc., etc., etc. 



Now these and other matters are interesting 

 in themselves. We are all anxious to obtain 

 new light upon them. We are all more or less 

 competent to judge, the conclusions of other 

 people regarding them. It is not too much to say 

 that this portion of Mr. Tesla's paper is in the 

 main so trivial, so superficial, so obviously 

 weak, as to throw doubt upon the whole essay. 

 Many of the subjects treated are the oldest 

 problems of the human race. They have been 

 discussed by every philosopher since Aristotle. 

 It is fairly astonishing to see Mr. Tesla's reason- 

 ings in print at this day. They compare with 

 the logic of giants like Spinoza, Kant, Lord 

 Kelvin, Herbert Spencer, and the rest as a 

 baby's prattle to the ' Summa Theologiffi.' 



If this judgment seems too harsh the follow- 

 ing paragraphs will fully confirm it. No dis- 

 courtesy is meant to Mr. Tesla. But his paper 



has been printed. It now belongs to his read- 

 ers. He must allow them to compare his philos- 

 ophizing with that of his great predecessors 

 and with the dicta of common sense. 



The paper begins by asking profound ques- 

 tions with regard to human life. Whence 

 comes it? What is it? Whither does it tend ? 

 " Though we may never he able to comprehend hu- 

 man life, we know certainly that it is a movement, 

 of whatever nature it may be," is Mr. Tesla's an- 

 swer. A movement? — one movement? Are 

 we sure it is a movement, and nothing else ? 

 " Sence, wherever there is life, there is a mass 

 moved by a force," A mass? A force? Why 

 not masses, forces, hundreds of them ? These 

 beginnings which seem so definite lead to the 

 conclusion that life is a rhythm, but this conclu- 

 sion is at once dropped for the utterly antago- 

 nistic conception that man, mankind, is ' a 

 7nass urged on by a force.' A force will urge a 

 mass onward, not swing it rhythmically. We 

 need not linger over this discrepancy, though 

 there might be something to say, if it were worth 

 while. 



Mankind is then conceived as one physical 

 mass ; and Mr. Tesla's proof that this is a 

 true conception is derived from the fact that 

 every one of us feels sympathy with a friend 

 who is hurt. Here is a mixing of two worlds 

 — the world of matter and the world of feeling 

 — which does not tend to clearness. The man 

 born blind thought the sunset like a pleas- 

 ing friendship. Swedenborg in his idea of the 

 Grand Man who is the sum and integral of all 

 individual men has put the question in a much' 

 truer light ; but let us pass on. Man is, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Tesla, ^ a mass,' one physical mass. 

 Call this physical mass M. Jlf is a quantity 

 which can be expressed in tons or in ounces. 

 Mankind is ' impelled in one direction ' — one di- 

 rection ! ! by a force/, " which is resisted by an- 

 other force B, acting in a direction exactly oppo- 

 site." 



The idea in Mr. Tesla's mind is apparently 

 that the force R is the reaction of the first' 

 force /. But every reaction is not only op- 

 posite to its action but equal to it, according to 

 Newton. Not so in Mr. Tesla's universe. Re- 

 actions are opposite to, but less than actions. 

 There is an effective force left over, which, in 



