484 Mr, Babbage and Mr. Herschel's account of the 
even when thus magnified, is still equivocal ; and its mag- 
netism, if it exist, can hardly be estimated at a thousandth 
part of that of copper, and is probably still lower. 
24. The reduction of the metals to filings or to powder, 
was found to produce a still more striking diminution of their 
magnetic energy ; and a class of experiments of great in- 
terest, as to the effect of the agglutination of these powders by 
metallic and non-metallic cements and liquids, immediately 
presents itself, into which want of leisure only has hitherto 
prevented our entering, as well as on the important subject of 
the magnetism of metallic alloys and atomic combinations, with 
which this branch of the enquiry is essentially connected. 
25. When we come to reason on the above facts, much 
caution is doubtless necessary to avoid over-hasty generali- 
zation. Whoever has considered the progress of our know- 
ledge respecting the magnetic virtue, which, first supposed to 
belong only to iron and its compounds, was at length reluc- 
tantly conceded to nickel and cobalt, though in a much 
weaker degree — then suspected to belong to titanium, and 
now extended, apparently with an extraordinary range of 
degrees of intensity to all the metals — will hardly be inclined 
to stop short here, but will readily admit, at least the proba- 
bility, of all bodies in nature participating in it more or less. 
Yet if the electro-dynamical theory of magnetism be well 
founded, it is difficult to conceive how that internal circula- 
tion of electricity, which has been regarded as necessary for 
the production of magnetism, can be excited or maintained in 
non-conducting bodies. Without pretending to draw a line 
however, in what is perhaps at last only a question of degree, 
one thing is certain, that all the unequivocal cases of mag- 
