MAGNETIC CHARACTERS OF SPACE. 
25 
as possible, and sealed up hermetically, it may be considered as inclosing what is 
commonly called a vacuum. I have prepared many such vacua, and may be permitted 
to distinguish them by the name of the gas, traces of which still remain. In comparing 
these vacua in the magnetic field (2773.), they appeared to me to be in all respects 
alike ; the oxygen vacuum was not more magnetic than the hydrogen, nitrogen, or 
olefiant vacuum. Their differences, if any, were far smaller than the differences 
which could be produced by the variations of size and other conditions of the glass 
bulbs, and can only be made manifest by the means hereafter to be used (2783.) ; and 
I am fully persuaded that they will ultimately be nearly alike, ranging close up to 
and about a perfect vacuum. 
2787. Before determining the place of zero amongst magnetic and diamagnetic 
bodies, we have to consider the true character and relation of space free from any 
material substance. Though one cannot procure a space perfectly free from matter, 
one can make a close approximation to it in a carefully prepared Torricellian vacuum. 
Perhaps it is hardly necessary for me to state, that I find both iron and bismuth in 
such vacua perfectly obedient to the magnet. From such experiments, and also from 
general observations and knowledge, it seems manifest that the lines of magnetic 
force (2149.) can traverse pure space, just as gravitating force does, and as static 
electrical forces do (1616.) ; and therefore space has a magnetic relation of its own, 
and one that we shall probably find hereafter to be of the utmost importance in 
natural phenomena. But this character of space is not of the same kind as that 
which, in relation to matter, we endeavour to express by the terms magnetic and 
diamagnetic. To confuse them together would be to confound space with matter, 
and to trouble all the conceptions by which we endeavour to understand and work 
out a progressively clearer view of the mode of action and laws of natural forces. 
It would be as if, in gravitation or electric forces (1613.), one were to confound the 
particles acting on each other with the space across which they are acting, and 
would, I think, shut the door to advancement. Mere space cannot act as matter 
acts, even though the utmost latitude be allowed to the hypothesis of an ether ; and 
admitting that hypothesis, it would be a large additional assumption to suppose that 
the lines of magnetic force are vibrations carried on by it (2591.) ; whilst as yet, we 
have no proof or indication that time is required for their propagation, or in what 
respect they may in general character assimilate to, or differ from, the respective lines 
of gravitating, luminiferous, or electric forces. 
2788. Neither can space be supposed to have those circular currents round points 
diffused through it, which Ampere’s theory assumes to exist around the particles of 
ordinary magnetic matter, and which I had for a moment supposed might exist in 
the contrary direction round the particles of diamagnetic matter (2429. 2640. &c.). 
The imagination, restrained by philosophical considerations, fails to find anything in 
pure space about which the currents could circulate, or to which they could by any 
association be attached ; and the difficulty, if already not immeasurable, would be 
MDCCCLI. V 
