414 Mr. W. R. Browne on Action at a Distance. 



is evident by symmetry that the central section will be soli- 

 cited in one direction precisely as much as in another; hence 

 the slightest pull will cause the bar to part in the middle. 



The above trains of reasoning are not long, and rest on un- 

 doubted facts; and the writer has v not been able to discover 

 any flaw in them. But unless some such flaw, and a fatal 

 one, be discovered, it must be held to be demonstrated that 

 the phenomena of cohesion cannot be explained except on the 

 hypothesis of action at a distance. 



Magnetism. — Of the many difficult cases presented by the 

 phenomena of electricity, it will be sufficient to cite one of 

 the simplest. When an ordinary iron magnet is brought 

 near a piece of iron, the latter is attracted to it. Now the 

 first impact hypothesis is here inadmissible, because the bodies 

 are not in contact; and the second, because the effect is one of 

 attraction, not of repulsion. Thus the only possible explanation 

 of this fact, apart from action at a distance, is by supposing 

 that the magnet intercepts a proportion of a shower of par- 

 ticles which would otherwise impinge equally in all directions 

 upon the iron. It is of course possible to imagine a " mag- 

 netism-gas," different again from both the "gravity-gas" and 

 the " cohesion-gases," to which this would apply; but the 

 writer has not been able to imagine any property, consistent 

 with the principle of impact, which could be given to the 

 magnet, such as to make it intercept these particles, w r hen the 

 same magnet, before being magnetized, would be unable to 

 do so — and also such as would make it intercept the particles 

 flying towards a piece of iron, and not to intercept the par- 

 ticles flying towards a similar piece of brass. 



Vibrations. — Any thing like the vibration of a molecule 

 about a central position (which is the fundamental idea in ex- 

 plaining Heat, Light, and all undulatory movements) seems 

 to be impossible on this theory. For a molecule, once started, 

 is in the position of a free projectile through space, and w r ill 

 continue to move in a straight line until it accidentally strikes 

 against some other molecule which may be moving in any 

 other direction. Hence it is obvious that the chance of the 

 molecule ever coming back to its original position is indefi- 

 nitely small. This applies especially to the case of the aether, 

 the particles of which are comparable to those of the gravity- 

 gas. 



The above are a few very simple cases, in which it seems 

 certainly difficult to avoid the conclusion that action at a dis- 

 tance must necessarily exist. And if it exists in these cases, 

 then, as already remarked, it becomes at least probable that it 

 may exist in other cases ; such as gravity, where the evidence 



