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Rh are cases in which percussion or friction appears at first sight to have destroyed visible energy; but before pronouncing upon this seeming destruction, it clearly behoves us to ask if anything else makes its appearance at the moment when the visible energy is apparently destroyed. For. after all, energy may be like the Eastern magicians, of whom we read that they had the power of changing themselves into a variety of forms, but were nevertheless very careful not to disappear altogether.

48. Now, in reply to the question we have put, it may be confidently asserted that whenever visible energy is apparently destroyed by percussion or friction, something else makes its appearance, and that something is heat. Thus, a piece of lead placed upon an anvil may be greatly heated by successive blows of a blacksmith's hammer. The collision of flint and steel will produce heat, and a rapidly-moving cannon ball, when striking against an iron target, may even be heated to redness. Again, with regard to friction, we know that on a dark night sparks are seen to issue from the break-wheel which is stopping a railway train, and we know, also, that the axles of railway carriages get alarmingly hot, if they are not well supplied with grease.

Finally, the schoolboy will tell us that he is in the habit of rubbing a brass button upon the desk, and applying it to the back of his neighbour's hand, and that