﻿Dr. Guyot on the Forms and Forces of Matter. 413 



After the study of vibration we shall have to explain the 

 movement of translation of the heavenly bodies and of pla- 

 nets, and satellites on their axes, the orbital motion of planets 

 and their satellites, the movement of atmospheres and oceans, 

 the motions of sidereal systems, the motions of animals and 

 the motions of mechanical and physical translation found on 

 the surface of the earth. 



On the Motion of Vibration, its varieties and their effects. 



There is no single material molecule in the universe which 

 does not accomplish a motion of vibration more or less extended 

 and more or less rapid. More rapid if it be less extended, more 

 extended if it be less rapid. The simple atoms of aether, the 

 systematized atoms of media, gaseous, liquid, and solid, those 

 of each of the different bodies (elements) which form the three 

 latter media execute, each in the place it occupies, the move- 

 ment of vibration proper to it. 



Is vibration a motion to and fro, or a motion of oscillation from 

 one molecule to another ? Is it a simple orbit, or one accom- 

 panied by axial rotation ? Is it an elliptic or a spiral motion ? 

 Genius will find this out; science will ultimately determine it : 

 for the present it is sufficient to know that all the molecules of 

 bodies, both the densest and the rarest, of platinum as well 

 as of hydrogen, are at a distance from one another, isolated from 

 one another, free from one another, and that this distance, 

 this isolation, this liberty of association can only be due to their 

 permanent activity, to their vibration, greater or less, quicker or 

 slower. Each molecule is a power or force in function, a move- 

 ment of vibration which influences surrounding molecules in the 

 way of contact or cooperation ; and each body is the resultant 

 [resume), the total of these forms of which each molecule is the 

 unit. The more dense and the larger a body is, the greater 

 is the sum of the motions it has to perform. Whatever of these 

 motions it does not accomplish in translation, it accomplishes 

 in vibration, and vice versa. 



Vibration includes three components — mode, number, and am- 

 plitude. The minor mode constitutes electricity, the mean mode 

 heat, and the major mode light. Number constitutes the degrees 

 of electricity, of heat, and of light. Amplitude constitutes the ca- 

 pacities, the dilatations, and the gaseous, liquid, and solid states. 

 The power of attraction is common to all these modes of vibration. 



These three orders of vibratory movement of the molecules 

 of ponderable bodies (namely, electricity, heat, and light), in 

 passing from the one order to the other, conserve their intrin- 

 sic characters, but they acquire others which are very different 

 and altogether individually characteristic. These resemblances 



