618 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
■Nvith acid and basic properties, like the ponderables. The 
two electricities, for example. Negative electricity he 
places at the head of the acid series under the name Elec- 
trile. Positive electricity takes its place at the head of the 
basic series as Etherile. The compounds formed by the 
union of these two, the author says, are always neutral, but 
differ according to the state of condensation, constituting in 
the highest state of condensation light, in a lower state heat, 
and in the lowest the etherial fluid. The last fluid he con¬ 
siders a combination, in which the two simple bodies neu¬ 
tralise each other without losing much of their liberty of 
action, as is proved by the ease with which they may be 
separated. 
Dr. Tyndall has stated that if a falling body be arrested 
in its downward tendency, the force is not lost, but converted 
into heat; and were the earth^s motion suddenly stopped, 
the heat developed would raise the temperature to such a 
degree^ that the elements thereof would be dissipated in 
vapour. In this way, it may be, the prediction will be 
fulfilled, ^^the earth also, and the works that are therein, 
shall be burned up.^^ 
The fact that force may be converted into heat has given 
rise to the theory that the heat and light given out by the 
sun result from meteoric bodies falling on its surface. The 
conversion of muscular force, he says, into heat is strikingly 
shown in the concussion of flint and steel, in the old method 
of obtaining a light, and energetic chemical union, being 
attended with the evolution of heat, may be regarded as 
produced by the falling together of atoms at a high velocity* 
He further adds that heat, whenever evolved, can be made 
to reproduce the exact amount of force that was arrested in 
its production. Thus the union of a pound of coal with 
about two pounds of oxygen evolves an amount of heat 
capable, if properly applied, of raising a hundred pounds’ 
weight to a height of twenty miles. The coals raised every 
year in England amount to 84,000,000 tons, which, were 
they all applied to the production of force, would be equal 
to 108,000,000 horses working constantly ; or a pound of 
coals may be regarded as equal to the force of 300 horses 
working for one minute. 
