ACTION OF MATTER IN DIAMAGNETIC PHENOMENA. 
59 
to make it manifest and indicate its operation. It is very striking- to observe the 
feeble condition of a helix when alone, and the astonishing force which, in giving and 
receiving, it manifests by association with a piece of soft iron. So also here we may 
hope for some analogous development of this element of power, so new as yet to our 
experience. It cannot for a moment be supposed, that, being given to natural bodies, 
it is either superfluous or insufficient, or unnecessary. It doubtless has its appointed 
office, and that, one which relates to the whole mass of the globe ; and it is probably 
because of its relation to the whole earth, that its amount is necessarily so small (so 
to speak) in the portions of matter which we handle and subject to experiment. 
And small as it is, how vastly greater is this force, even in dynamic results, than the 
mighty power of gravitation, for instance, which binds the whole universe together, 
when manifested by masses of matter of equal magnitude ! 
2442. With a full conviction that the uses of this power in nature will be developed 
hereafter, and that they will prove, as all other natural results of force do, not merely 
important but essential, I will venture a few hasty observations. 
2443. Matter cannot thus be affected by the magnetic forces without being itself 
concerned in the phenomenon, and exerting in turn a due amount of influence upon 
the magnetic force. It requires mere observation to be satisfied that when a magnet 
is acting upon a piece of soft iron, the iron itself, by the condition which its particles 
assume, carries on the force to distant points, giving it direction and concentration in 
a manner most striking. So also here the condition which the particles of intervening 
diamagnetics acquire, may be the very condition which carries on and causes the 
transfer of force through them. In former papers (1161, &c.) # I proposed a theory 
of electrical induction founded on the action of contiguous particles, with which I 
am now even more content than at the time of its proposition : and I then ventured 
to suggest that probably the lateral action of electrical currents which is equivalent 
to electrodynamic or magnetic action, was also conveyed onwards in a similar manner 
(1663. 1710. 1729. 1735.). At that time I could discover no peculiar condition of 
the intervening or diamagnetic matter; but now that we are able to distinguish such 
an action, so like in its nature in bodies so unlike in theirs, and by that so like in 
character to the manner in which the magnetic force pervades all kinds of bodies, 
being at the same time as universal in its presence as it is in its action ; now that 
diamagnetics are shown not to be indifferent bodies, I feel still more confidence in re- 
peating the same suggestion, and asking whether it may not be by the action of the 
contiguous or next succeeding particles that the magnetic force is carried onwards, 
and whether the peculiar condition acquired by diamagnetics when subject to mag- 
netic action, is not that condition by which such propagation of the force is affected ? 
2444. Whichever view we take of solid and liquid substances, whether as forming 
two lists, or one great magnetic class (2424. 2437-), it will not, as far as I can perceive, 
affect the question. They are all subject to the influence of the magnetic lines of 
* Philosophical Transactions, 1838, Part I. 
i 2 
