Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/385

370 view adopted respecting them may be, we can, at all events, affect these lines of force in a manner which may be conceived as partaking of the nature of a shake or lateral vibration. For suppose two bodies, A B, distant from each other and under mutual action, and therefore connected by lines of force, and let us fix our attention upon one resultant of force having an invariable direction as regards space; if one of the bodies move in the least degree right or left, or if its power be shifted fora moment within the mass (neither of these cases being difficult to realize if A and B be either electric or magnetic bodies), then an effect equivalent to a lateral disturbance will take place in the resultant upon which we are fixing our attention; for, either it will increase in force whilst the neighbouring resultants are diminishing, or it will fall in force as they are increasing.

It may be asked, what lines of force are there in nature, which are fitted to convey such an action, and supply for the vibrating theory the place of the ether? l do not pretend to answer this question with any confidence; all I can say is, that I do not perceive in any part of space. whether (to use the common phrase) vacant or filled with matter, anything but forces and the lines in which they are exerted. The lines of Weight or gravitating force are, certainly, extensive enough to answer in this respect any demand made upon them by radiant phenomena; and so, probably, are the lines of magnetic force: and then, who can forget that Mossotti has shown that gravitation, aggregation, electric force, and electro-chemical action may all have one common connexion or origin; and so, in their actions at a distance, may have in common that infinite scope which some of these actions are known to possess?

The view which I am so bold as to put forth considers, therefore, radiation as a high species of vibration in the lines of force which are known to connect particles and also masses of matter together. It endeavours to dismiss the ether, but not the vibrations. The kind of vibration which, I believe, can alone account for the wonderful, varied, and beautiful phenomena of polarization, is not the same as that which occurs on the surface of disturbed water, or the waves of sound in gases or liquids, for the vibrations in these cases are direct, or to and from the centre of action, whereas the former are lateral. It seems to me, that the resultant of two or more lines of force