410 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



current in such a medium not to be a rapid motion of translation, but a 

 transmission of pressure, and believe in the opinion expressed by Silvanus 

 Thomson, that electricity is one thing and not two. If the ether, then, 

 among its other functions, produces gravitation, an intensification of its 

 electrical action might reasonably be supposed to augment its gravitational 

 action. Let us suppose a loop of wire to form part of a circuit, the loop 

 being free to turn on an axis as the handle of a bucket is. When the loop 

 is horizontal, like the handle of a bucket when resting on the rim, it must 

 be supported, or else it will hang down. Let it therefore be supported 

 from a delicate spring balance by means of a silk thread. . If a powerful 

 current be then sent through the loop, it will intensify the action of the 

 ether, and if the ether produces gravitation the loop of wire should, I think, 

 become heavier while the current was passing through it. 



Whatever gravitation may be, surely there is no reason to despair of 

 finding out whether it is caused by something material or not. 



Art. LII. — Is Life a Distinct Force? By E. H. Bakewell, M.D., Fellow 

 of the Boyal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, etc. 

 [Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 3rd July, 1884.] 

 The question I have placed at the head of this paper is one not yet settled, 

 although it may be admitted that there is a preponderance of opinion hi 

 favour of a negative reply. For this reason it is well worthy of discussion, 

 and as it is one on which I have thought much and in connection with 

 which I have made many experiments, I have selected it for discussion this 

 evening. 



As this is not intended to be a metaphysical paper nor to lead to a dis- 

 cussion on mere abstractions, certain postulates will be requisite. Let it 

 be granted then that matter exists as ourselves and not ourselves, that it is 

 manifested to our senses by phenomena, that it is acted upon by certain 

 forces or energies, and that two kinds of matter may be discerned, living and 

 non-living. 



Definitions. — We define non-living matter to be that which possesses no 

 power of motion in itself, nor of self-nutrition, nor of producing any change 

 within itself by the action of its own parts, nor of reproduction. 



Living matter is an albuminoid compound, characterized by the posses- 

 sion of motion in itself, that is, independent of the action of any external 

 force, by being able to assimilate food or nutriment* and by being able to 

 reproduce its like. 



