degree of electricity. That no change can take place in bodies either by
chemical decomposition, by increase or decrease of temperature, by
friction or contact, without in some measure exciting electricity or
motion of the ether. That galvanism and magnetism are but ethereal
currents without condensation, induced by peculiar superficial and
internal molecular arrangement of the particles of certain substances.
That light and heat are effects of the vibrations of atoms, propagated
through this universal medium from body to body. That the atomic motion
of heat can be produced by the motion of translation or momentum of
bodies in the gross, that is, by friction, by compression, &c.; and can
be reconverted into momentum at our pleasure. Hence the latent heat or
specific atomic motion of combustibles, originally derived from the sun,
is transferred to atoms, which are capable of being inclosed in
cylinders, so as to make use of their force of expansion, which is thus
converted into momentum available for all the wants of man.


GRAVITY MECHANICAL.

When we come to a full examination of this theory, we shall further
reason that this _ether_ so far from being of that quasi spiritual
nature which astronomers would have us believe, is a fearfully energetic
fluid, possessing considerable inertia and elasticity; that its law of
condensation is that of all other fluids, that is, as the compressing
force directly; and that its effects are simply a product of matter and
motion. We will next endeavor to prove that the gravity of planetary
matter could not exist without this ethereal medium, by showing that it
is an effect produced by the interference of _opposing waves_, whereby a
body is prevented from radiating into space its own atomic motion, from
the side opposite which another body is placed, as much as on the