EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
617 
clangers, whicli, had they acted otherwise, might have been 
avoided. Tiiere can be no questioning the fact that lie 
alone is wise who, observant of the doings of others, on 
them founds his course of procedure, not necessarily tread¬ 
ing in tlie same steps, but using all obtainable information 
as aids to his progress. 
Ill nature we perceive incessant motion to exist, Avhich 
is ever tending to the development of some of her effects. 
The phenomena of heat and of light, and probably also of 
that inscrutable power termed electricity, are simply the 
result of motion, either continuous or interrupted. 
“ Physical research,’^ says Dr. Phipson, “ has shown us 
that when we develope a given force or vibration—for in¬ 
stance, that of electricity—we can obtain, according to cir¬ 
cumstances, a vibration called positive electricity, or a 
vibration called negative electricity, the properties of which 
are opposite, and neutralise each other. So again with 
light—we can obtain at will vibrations of light which neu¬ 
tralise other vibrations, and so produce darkness. The same 
occurs with sound—with one kind of vibration we neutralise 
another, and produce silence. As regards heat, it is probable 
that such will also be found to occur when experiment has 
been brought to bear upon this subject, for heat appears to 
follow laws closely analogous to those of light, electricity, 
and sound. In the present state of science these phenomena 
are referred to waves or undulations of matter. If the 
waves be of equal or multiple dimensions, the effect of the 
undulation is increased; if, on the contrary, the undulations 
do not correspond, they interfere with each other, and in 
certain circumstances neutralise each other completely, just 
as when we oppose to a body in motion a body moving in a 
contrary direction with the same mass and velocity. The 
same state of things exists for chemical action, and we find 
for the chemical elements a positive, a negative, and a 
neutral condition.^’ 
M. Martin reminds the Academy of Sciences that in 
1858 he published a work entitled the ^ New School of 
Electro-Chemistry,’ &c., in which he showed tliat the im¬ 
ponderables may be proved to be endowed in their elements 
XXXVI. 41 
