422 Dr. G. Gore on a Neic Method and 



and if they are too strong the measurements of electromotive 

 force are more difficult to make. As the measurements were 

 made at the null point when no current was passing, the 

 curves represent the electromotive forces and molecular 

 motions which exist under that condition ; when the current 

 passes, the molecular movements are greatly altered. 



The changes of electromotive force and forms of curve 

 obtained, — 1st, by the same variations of strength of the 

 same solution at two different temperatures; 2nd, by vary- 

 ing the temperature of a solution without changing its 

 strength ; and 3rd, by varying its temperature at the posi- 

 tive metal only, or at the negative one only, — support the 

 general view that each substance becomes more or less a 

 different substance at each different temperature, and that the 

 degrees of property of each substance at different tempera- 

 tures are practically infinite in number. 



The results in general support the kinetic theoiy that the 

 most fundamental attribute of matter is motion, that a mass 

 of matter is a mass of motion, that each substance consists 

 essentially of a collection of molecular motions, and that the 

 chief properties of bodies are consequences of such motions. 

 Changes of volta-electromotive force are now generally 

 recognized as being due to those motions, and as being dis- 

 turbances of the universal aether which pervades all bodies 

 and all space. Each degree of such force may also be 

 regarded as a concrete result of an extensive series of mole- 

 cular vibrations of extremely varied degrees of amplitude ; 

 this series being characteristic of the particular material 

 combination producing it, analogous to the collection of 

 vibrations producing a beam of light of a particular burning 

 substance. The curves represent in addition the changes in 

 amount of these motions ; and by observing these changes in 

 a single substance under a sufficient variety of conditions, a 

 more or less complete graphic delineation of them as repre- 

 senting that particular substance might be obtained. When 

 we are able to fully interpret the language or meaning of 

 the^e curves, we shall learn a very great deal respecting the 

 internal motions and changes of substances, and the conditions 

 of conversion of potential into kinetic energy. 



As each curve is a geometrical and quantitative representa- 

 tion of a series of such changes, a complete collection of such 

 curves, yielded by all kinds of aqueous solutions, would con- 

 stitute an extensive system of representations of the molecular 

 motions of substances somewhat like that of the luminous 

 spectra of bodies ; and the magnitudes and harmonic relations 

 of the degrees of electromotive force represented by the 



