PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE, clxxiii 
take fifty millions of them placed in a row to make up an inch, and 
that all of these are constantly rushing against and bombarding one 
another at a rate of over six thousand feet per second. 
As a corollary to the theory of the conservation of energy, Lord 
Kelvin, in 1852, laid down the further principle of the Dissipation of 
Energy, by which he has demonstrated that, although energy is theo¬ 
retically indestructible, yet it tends gradually to get into a state in 
which it possesses less power of doing work, that is to say, it is gradu¬ 
ally getting into the condition of diffused heat . 
(c) Electricity and Magnetism. —The progress in this branch 
of Physics during the Queen’s reign has been more marked than in 
any other. Before 1837, indeed, Volta had invented the Electric 
Battery, and Ampere, Oersted, and Faraday had experimented with 
magnetism and electricity, and had to some extent shown the relation¬ 
ship between these two, so that by that time the ground was prepared 
and ready for further advance. This advance was made partly by 
Faraday himself, whose labours extended into the middle of the 
reign, and partly by a host of workers who were attracted to this field 
of research. The most important practical outcome of this science, 
however, is exactly coincident with the reign, for it was in 1837 that 
Wheatstone and Cooke took out the first patent for an electric tele¬ 
graph. Nearly forty years later, namely in 1876, Prof. Graham Bell 
brought out his electric telephone. 
Amongst other researches in electricity, one of the most inter¬ 
esting is that which connects terrestrial electricity with the spots on 
the sun, thus again proving what all modern science has tended to 
prove, namely, the unity of all the forces of the universe, and pointing 
to a common origin for all. 
Of recent speculations in Physics, I have already referred to the 
generalisations regarding light and heat, the latter affecting the con¬ 
stitution of matter itself. A still bolder theory, however, has been 
advanced by Lord Kelvin, namely, the “Vortex Theory,” which 
supposes the existence of an omnipresent fluid, the “ ether,” which 
fills all space, and assumes that what we know as matter is simply an 
aggregation of infinitesimal whirlpools of ether. Whether this 
is a true explanation of matter or not, it at anyrate supplies a working 
hypothesis for further investigations. 
The arts dependent on Physics include all branches of mechanical 
and civil engineering; and, regarding the wonderful progress in these, 
our periodical literature last summer contained abundant evidence. 
It is sufficient simply to mention the development of the steam engine, 
the steam hammer, the Bessemer process of manufacturing steel, and 
electrical engineering in all its departments, including electric lighting, 
electric communication, electro-plating, and electro-typing. 
III.—ASTRONOMY. 
At the beginning of the reign, Sir William Herschel, “the 
Columbus of the Heavens,” as he has been called, had just finished 
his long and painstaking career of discovery, as had also Piazzi, the 
discoverer of the first of the Asteroids, and Laplace, the founder 
