, 1876-11-04

NhNc bHc SIHH'L lHc NoHltIlUl discovery
of Rumiord, that heat is mrrclv
mode of motion What he showed to
be true of heat is now generally admitted
to he true of other physical forces ns
light, electricity, magnetism, and chem
ical attraction. They are now all view.
ed as mOdes of motion and as having n
definite and Quantativc relation to TINT
and to each other. The old notion Of
impondcWblc material agents, as an
electric fluid, and calUlic fluid, arr.
with the corpuscular theory of light.
among the things Of the past.
All things that can legitimatcly be.
come the subjects Of scientific invcstiga.
ton must come under the head of mat.
ter, or of the tCrccs that act on matter.
Indeed nothing can be coHcciced by the
mind of man that does not come under
the one or the other of these heads.
Forces are causes; and all force ulti.
matcly resolves itself into transition of
heat from warmer to colder medium
This expression was first lai down as
a law by Carnot, French philosopher.
and is named after him. Camot's law.
Were the universe of one temperature.
there could be no interaction of the
forces; on vitality, no growth no motion,
as long as that state of things continued,
save only those motions that come from
gravitaton. Wherever we look, where
ever there is motion and action, going
and n coming in the blowing of the
wind, in the running of the waters, in
the working OF machinery, in the growth
OF plants, in the life of animals, every
where we perceive as the cause, one al.
mighty force--HEAT-and the single
of this, THE sun. To this bright
and glorious lumnary can be traced by
steps, not only ull the light
and warmtl that make this globe OF
ours the abode Of life and happiness, but
every motion and change that take place
upon it, even those motions or actions
that constitute life and thought. Thus,
says Helmbolt2, we are all souls of fire
and children ofthe sun; ard hence we
draw the tiattenng inference that all the
forces by which We live and move find
their source in the purest sunlight. We
may all justly claim to be in point Of
nobility, not in any respect inferior to
the high and mighty monarch OF China,
who heretofore alone called himself the
son OF the sun and brother ofthc moon.
But it must also be conceded that our
lower fellow beings, the frog and tho
worm, share the same ETHEREAL origin, as
nlso the whole vegetable world, and even
the fuel that comes to us from the ages
past, in the shape of coal, as well as the
youngest offspring of the forest, with
which we heat Cur stoves and set our
in motion.
Those Of you to whom these views arc
might be aided in the COM
prehension of them by passing allusion
to the way in whic Ii the solar rays are
supposed to act in bringing about these
results. The sun is now
proved to be an enormous globe OF in
tensely heated matter that necessarily
pours out its life bcstowing rays in all
directions. The heat of the sun, like
that of every other body, is thought to
be caused by vibFatory motion among
its molecules or ultimate particles.
These vibrations are supposed to be
to a medium called ether,
that fills all space and carries the undu-
lations of heat and light with tho enor-
nous rapidity OF twelve millions of miles
in minute. In the plant that these
rays impinge upon, they be-
come absorbed and converted into an
other kind of force, chemical affinity, by
means of which the plant seizes upon its
nutriment, and the solar
heat and light, for time, disappear.
They may become stored up in the wood
Of the plant for many years, or the plant
into coal, the force that con-
tributed to its growth may be there
locked up for countless centuries. But
it is law of nature that all the forces
that are absorbed in building up COM
pound are again let loose on its decomr
position.-If not let loose in the shape