﻿On the Fundamental Principles of Molecular Physics. 275 



electricity and heat, experiments which I shall detail in another 

 place show that it does not exist. I investigated mercury, water, 

 sulphuric acid (specific gravity 1*25), concentrated solutions of 

 chloride of sodium, sulphates of zinc and of copper. I find the 

 following series, in which the better conductor precedes : — 



Conduction for heat. Conduction for electricity. 



Mercury. 



Water. * 



Sulphate of copper . 



Sulphuric acid. 



Sulphate of zinc. 



Solution of chloride of sodium, 



Mercury. 



Sulphuric acid. 



Solution of chloride of sodium. 



Sulphate of zinc. 



Sulphate of copper. 



Water. 



XXXVII. Fundamental Principles of Molecular Physics. 



By Professor J. Bayma, S. J., of Stonyhurst College. 



[Continued from p. 188.] 



II. 



HAVING prepared his ground for the defence and for the 

 attack, Professor Norton comes to my objections against 

 his third and fourth principles, which the reader will find in the 

 Philosophical Magazine (February 1869, p. 99). 



Tliree forms of matter. — I had asked : On what evidence are we 

 to grant that matter exists in three forms essentially different 

 from each other ? The learned Professor give3 two answers. 

 The first is that such forms of matter are admitted even by me, 

 though in different words. And to prove this, he remarks that 

 I, in my ' Molecular Mechanics/ admit these three things : — 

 (1) the nucleus of a molecule, (2) the envelope of the nucleus, 

 (3) the universal sether : and from this he infers that the differ- 

 ence of doctrine between us, from the present point of view, is 

 in name only. I am sorry to say that the difference lies not in 

 the name only, but in the thing also. 



According to my doctrine, the matter of which the nuclei (I 

 say nuclei, not nucleus ; for there are many in each molecule) are 

 made is exactly of the same form as the matter of which the 

 envelope is composed and the matter which is to be found in 

 luminiferous aether. For in the doctrine of simple elements, 

 which I have advocated, the matter in each element is a single 

 unextended point : and unextended points cannot differ in form. 



If however Professor Norton in his notion of matter implies 

 the force also (which 1 doubt, as he in his first principle speaks 

 of matter and/o?*ce as of distinct things), then the form of matter 

 would be its principle of activity, which is the formal constituent 

 of material substance. In this case I am ready to allow that 



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