DEWAR OX SPONTANEOUS GENERATION". 41 



all minerals, rocks, etc., have a certain structural power which may- 

 be traced to magnetism, we make the broad assertion that all the 

 atoms of matter in the earth have polarity. But it will be said 

 this is only an assumption and nothing more, and as it cannot be 

 proved, we may only take it for what it is worth. Yet strange as 

 it may seem, nothing is easier of proof, and we do it in the follow- 

 ing manner : 



We have said that in breaking a magnet each piece is found to 

 be a separate magnet having polarity, but if we reverse the experi- 

 ment, and incorporate a number of magnets into one, each magnet 

 merges its individual polarity into the magnetism of the whole, and 

 no matter what may be the size of the magnet, or the number of 

 magnets incorporated with it, there can never be more than the two 

 poles in it. This leads us, in passing, to say that if an argument 

 holds good in one extreme, it ought to hold good in the other. 

 Thus with regard to Tyndall's prolonging the intellectual vision to 

 the polarity of the magnetic molecules, if such a deduction is not 

 scientific because ' ' it crosses the boundary of experimental evi- 

 dence," then neither is it scientific to say, that if a million magnets 

 were welded into one great magnet a mile long by half a mile broad, 

 it would have only two poles, because such an experiment is 

 beyond the experimental boundary ; yet no one would ever dream 

 of doubting it. Strange also as it may seem, we have a real mag- 

 net much larger than the imaginary one we have pictured, composed 

 too of innumerable smaller magnets ; but this anticipates the 

 concluding proof to our magnetic or rather ato-rnagnetic theory of 

 life, (for we include the atomic attraction of like to like in it, 

 because the two forces are inseparable). We have said that the 

 atoms of all iron are magnets ; we have also said that the atoms of 

 all plants and animals are magnets ; we have even hazarded the 

 assertion that the atoms of all matter in earth, air and sea, are 

 magnets, and herein lies our proof of it. If all the atoms in the 

 earth are magnets, then the earth itself ought to be one vast pon- 

 derous magnet, with only two magnetic poles. And is it so? The 

 only answer is, Yes ! 



In conclusion, is not this as it should be, for where is the neces- 



