W. A. Norton-—Molecular and Cosmical Physics. 331 
atoms upon it is concerned; and this action is supposed to con- 
sist in a force of repulsion. It is also true of bodies of ordin- 
ary matter; but each integrant atom is under the operation of 
attractive as well as repulsive forces, exerted by other contigu- 
ous atoms—or at least of forces which tend to urge it from or 
toward the atoms acting on it. It is by virtue of this statical 
condition, and the change in the intensities of the effective 
forces when the relative distance of the atoms is altered, that 
Mass,-size, or perhaps in certain cases also the specific intensity 
of repulsion, of their atoms. We may reach a still deeper, 
underlying principle, by conceiving that all the atoms, so 
called, of ordinar matter, and of electric ether, consist of 
of — and but one primary form of force. 2 
he general inquiry now before us is whether the diverse 
