222 Mr. J. Ennis on the Origin of the Power 



In that same Part I collected many facts to show the hete- 

 rogeneity of matter, and how the peculiar elements of the Snn 

 may possess many thousand times more chemical force than 

 those in our Earth, and thus continue through periods illimit- 

 able to burn and to impart solar radiations. The same is true of 

 the facts ''dissociation/' which have been insisted on so much. 

 The oxide of gold is dissociated with truly an insignificant 

 amount of heat; the oxide of mercury requires only a littlemore; 

 but the dioxide of carbon requires many tens of thousand 

 times more heat for its dissociation, if indeed such dissociation 

 by heat be at all possible. The peculiar elements of the sun 

 may require we know not how much more. To say that the 

 great heat of the sun must necessarily dissociate its elements, 

 is to say what we do not know, and that in the face of the 

 strongest reasons to the contrary. 



I said there are three primitive forces whose origin is unknown 

 — repulsion, chemical force, and gravity. But we perceive that 

 from the operation of these three all the other special forces 

 become manifest, through the great principle of the conversion 

 of force. From the chemical force in ordinary burning come 

 light and heat ; from the same force in the galvanic battery 

 come electricity and magnetism. The great force of cohesion 

 is no exception. In the nebulous condition of the sun, at its 

 greatest expansion, we cannot conceive of the operation of the 

 cohesive force ; it was the product of the chemical force while 

 overcoming the repulsive force of the nebula. This we see 

 beautifully illustrated in oxygen and hydrogen. By the che- 

 mical force they are condensed into water ; and Dr. Henry, of 

 the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, first proved that 

 the cohesion between the molecules of water is probably equal 

 to that between the molecules of ice. In raising up a disk 

 1 inch -square from the surface of water, a force equal to the 

 weight of only 53 grains is required ; but this is because 

 layer after layer of the water is broken successively, like a 

 strong cord when its many strands are broken one by one 

 (his experiments are described in the fourth volume of the 

 American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia), — whence he 

 comes to the conclusion that the tensile force necessary to 

 break a cubic inch of water, instead of being 53 grains, must 

 be several hundred pounds. The difference between water 

 and ice is not in the amount of cohesion, but in the fixed 

 polarity of the molecules of ice, which by the action of heat 

 are allowed in the water to turn in every direction. 



I have now pointed out in a very brief manner some of the 

 many consequences flowing from the primitive diffusion of all 

 matter through all space, and its slow condensation into stars 



