Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-04-27
COMMENTS ON THE FOREGOING
The Discussion Leads to the Deep Water
of Metaphysics.


fessor's "Quackery Answered" we have only
this to say: He will find on careful examna-
| ton of our criticism that we have not crit
icised him personally; We have never had the
| pleasure of his acquaintance. The only crit
| cism offered was on his ideas-his system of
mechanics. And when it comes to that kind
| of criticism. the editor has been no respecter
| of persons. He has claimed the right to
criticise the acts and policy of the chief mag
strate, and to find good in the acts and prin-
ciples of many who are now in the lowest
stratum of the body polite; to discern and
point out errors of the great opponents of
| scientific thought, and find something of
stern integrity. virtue, wisdom, in the most
| ignorant of the race. The editor has always
| reserved the right TO condemn what he be-
lieves to be error, and to proclaim the right
and truth wherever they be found. If our
rows have hit others besides the professor, it
is not because of hate; we have no use for
that em66on as applied to persons, and it is,
perhaps, too strong a term to characterize
our feeling toward erroneous ideas.
Our only reason for supposing that Mr..
| Slater ignored the great masters of mathe-
mates and mechanics is that his ideas are so
at variance with theirs. He claims that
modern teachers ignore Newton's law that
action and reaction are opposite and equal,
in speaking of unbalanced forces and In not
regarding inertia as a force. We are of the
opinion that all recognize and accept the law
referred to, and yet there il room for such
notion as an unbalanced force. 1t is con-
venient to speak of force which produces
visible motion as unbalanced to distinguish
| it from one which merely produces pressure
without visible motion. If one body in mo-
| ton by impact cause a second TO move along
with it, it Is convenient to characterize the
push along the line of resultant motion as an
unbalanced force, though a spring scale be-
tween the two bodies would register the
| backward pressure of the second equal to the
| forward pressure of the first. So, assuming
lie Sage's theory of gravitation merely as ex-
! planatory, if body fall to the earth, it is by
the excess of impacts of corpuscuies in the line
of the centers of the body and the earth above
that in the opposite direction. And in this
case the same explanation would hold as in
the impact of two bodies.
| The professor believes that motion has in
recent years got the glory which belongs to
inertia. In this respect he is not in the trend
of scientific thought. The prevailing ten
dency of scientists is to narrow all physical
| phenomena down to two existences-matter
and motion. All physical phenomena are
resolved into these two ultimates. Force is
/ in, alc
cannot exist without matter, and matter
without motion would lose all the properties
by which it is known. All this may be wrong
and the professor may be right; but we are
now on the uncertain ground of metaphysics.
Sir William Thomson, taking Professor
Helmholtz's investigation of a perfect fluid
as a basis, has worked out theory of "vor-
tex atoms, and has succeeded in reconciin0
it with a greater portion of physical phe-
nomena. Ii makes matter merely peculiar
forms of rotating or vortex rings in one prirn-
tive perfect fluid, which in all pervading,
perfectly mobile, and incompressble. Thus
different kinds of matter and all physical
phenomena are merely varieties of motion in
single substratum of physical existence.
the primitive fluid. This is indeed giving
motion great glory; it Is one part of the du-
allty to which all physical phenomena are re-
resolved. 1t may not be true, but il has as
much in its favor, as far as explaining phe-
nomena is concerned. as does the ne5u!ar hJ-
pothesis. And, In fact, both are now quite
generally believed as the best theories ye,
propounded for the explanation of the physi
cal universe.
The phenomena which the professor cites
as explainable only on the assumption that
inertia is force, are easily explained by the
theory propounded. Helmholtz demonstrate
ed mathematically that if a vortex motion
be once set up in perfect fluid, that vortex
must always subsist and contain the same
portion of the fluid and the same amount of
motion, though the ring might be stretched
out to small diameter in one place and be
proportionally enlarged in another, the rota-
tior. increasing in rapidity as the cross sec
ton ia diminished, and vice versa. 1t would
thus have the property of mass and inertia,
the change in its motion and form requiring
the element of time. 1t would also be per-
fectly elastic. Other scientists. notably
Thomson and Dolbear have shown that the
properties of polarity, molecular attraction,
etc, follow as mathe NAUTICAL corollaries of
the theory.
By combining the theories of vortex atoms
or applying it rather to lie Sage's theory OF
Ultra Mundane Corpuscules to account for
gravitation-that law is reduced to the sim
pie law of motion produced by the impact of
bodies There is little left indeed. but a.
work ont the details of the theory, and we
resolve everything physical into motion of q
single primitive fluid. These views are not |
expressed as demonstrated truths, but mere
ly the trend of scientific thought at the pre-
sent time. II they be in the direction of
truth, then inertia is but secondary prop
erty dependant on matter in motion, or mo-
mentum. CHAs II. CHASE.
The highest honors in the power of the