204 Prof. Norton on Molecular Physics. 



operation as before; but heat, by expanding the molecular 

 atmospheres, should also tend to diminish the ratio of n to m, 

 and therefore to modify in a similar manner the natural curve 

 of molecular action. 



It is easy to see that a similar curve will also serve to repre- 

 sent the mutual actions of dissimilar molecules, which obtain 

 when a chemical union is formed between two different sub- 

 stances. But in this case a force of electric attraction not yet 

 considered may come into play. 



The general principle of two alternations of the effective action 

 of molecules, to which we have been theoretically conducted, is 

 distinctly recognized as a physical fact in the three different 

 states of aggregation of matter — in the molecular attraction 

 and repulsion manifest in solids and liquids, and in the mutual 

 repulsion subsisting between the same particles when widely 

 separated in the vaporous condition. It will be seen hereafter 

 that the law of molecular action, as portrayed in the curve 

 shown in fig. 1, furnishes, in the probable variations of the ratio 



n 



— , an adequate general cause for the varied results of this action 



exhibited in the different properties of substances ; and at the 

 same time reveals the probable explanation of many physical 

 and chemical phenomena occurring at surfaces of contact, and 

 of the dependence of these phenomena upon temperature and 

 other circumstances, as in oxidation, combustion, &c. 



From the stand-point now taken, new views open up to us on 

 all sides. The more conspicuous of these we will proceed to 

 sketch, in general outline, under the several heads of the Mole- 

 cular Constitution and Mechanical Properties of Bodies, Heat, 

 Light, Electricity, Magnetism, and Chemical Action. The inti- 

 mate relations subsisting between the phenomena occurring in 

 these different departments of Nature, and between the special 

 agents by which they are produced, or the " correlation of the 

 physical forces," will be seen to be deducible from the funda- 

 mental conceptions adopted. It will be observed that all these 

 varied phenomena are but different results of the action of the 

 primary forces, which consists in an attraction of atoms for their 

 atmospheres, and in a mutual repulsion between the atoms of 

 these atmospheres ; that they are, primarily, movements or dis- 

 turbances produced in these subtile atmospheres, from which 

 aethereal waves of impulses and motions of molecules and masses 

 may result. 



[To be continued.] 



