﻿110 Prof. W. A. Norton on Molecular Physics. 



We have already seen that the principle that one material 

 point acts upon another instantaneously, without the interven- 

 tion of any medium, is opposed to the fundamental idea that the 

 force exerted is inversely proportional to the square of the dis- 

 tance. This law, to say the least, is an arbitrary assumption in 

 the premises. The author also conceives that the mutual action 

 of two material points is in no degree and under no circum- 

 stances intercepted by another intervening point. But we know 

 that, in the case of the molecular forces, the amount of vis viva 

 expended in imparting motion to one particle is abstracted from 

 the force in action ; and, according to Professor Bayma, the mo- 

 lecular forces are of the same nature as the forces subsisting 

 between the material elements. The force of gravity, it is true, 

 is not sensibly intercepted ; but this does not prove that a ten- 

 dency to interception does not exist; for, upon the supposition 

 of a wave-transmission of the force, the effective attraction of 

 any molecule may be the mere differential of the actual force 

 transmitted, and, besides, in the circular revolution of a planet 

 the distauce from the sun remains unchanged. 



My own doctrine is that the molecular forces, including the 

 heat-repulsion, are dynamical forces transmitted by wave-pro- 

 pagation and developed by the primary forces of attraction and 

 repulsion subsisting between the atoms of gross matter and those 

 of the electric matter and the aether of space. The primary 

 forces determine the electric and gethereal atmospheres of mole- 

 cules, originate the molecular forces proper, and also, when an 

 inequality of electric condition is produced on two contiguous 

 molecules or bodies by molecular actions, gives rise to the spe- 

 cial forces of electric attraction and repulsion. The waves of 

 heat and light originate in the sethereal atmospheres of mole- 

 cules, and are developed by vibrations of the atoms of the elec- 

 tric atmospheres toward and from the centre of each molecule 

 and the region of sethereal disturbance. By reason of the vary- 

 ing conditions of equilibrium, the rate of vibration increases, and 

 its intensity or vis viva decreases, in proportion as the electric 

 atom is more remote from the centre of the molecule. Thus of 

 the different coloured rays the red proceeds from the lowest 

 depth in the electro-sethereal atmosphere. The obscure heat- 

 rays originate at a still lower depth. Heat and light may also 

 originate in the space between two molecules in the act of com- 

 bination, or near approach, by reason of the condensation of the 

 interstitial electric sether toward the line of the centres, resulting 

 from the oblique attractive action of the molecules. In this 

 condensation of the electric sether between molecules that are 

 urged nearer to each other, and the expansion of the same 

 when they are separated, we find the key to the explanation of 



