The principal phenomena of heat may be illustrated by a comparison with those of sound. Their excitation is not only similar but identical, as in friction and percussion; they are both communicated by contact and radiation; and Dr. Young observes that the effect of radiant heat in raising the temperature of a body upon which it falls, resembles the sympathetic agitation of a string when the sound of another string which is in unison with it is transmitted through the air. Light, heat, sound, and the waves of fluids are all subject to the same laws; their undulatory theories are perfectly similar: hence the interference of two hot rays must produce cold, that is, they must extinguish one another: darkness results from the interference of two undulations of light, silence ensues from the interference of two undulations of sound, and still water or no tide is the consequence of the interference of two tides. The propagation of sound, however, requires a much denser medium than that of light and heat; its intensity diminishes as the rarity of the air increases: so that, at a very small height above the surface of the earth, the noise of the tempest ceases, and the thunder is heard no more in those boundless regions where the heavenly bodies accomplish their periods in eternal and sublime silence.
A consciousness of the fallacy of our senses is one of the most important consequences of the study of nature. This study teaches us that no object is seen by us in its true place, owing to aberration; that the colours of substances are solely the effects of the action of matter upon light; and that light itself as well as heat and sound are not real beings, but mere motions communicated to our perceptions by the nerves. The human frame may therefore be regarded as an elastic system, the different parts of which are capable of receiving the tremors of elastic media, and of vibrating in unison with any number of superimposed undulations, all of which have their perfect and independent effect. Here our knowledge ends: the mysterious influence of matter on mind will in all probability be for ever hid from man.
Common or Static Electricity, or Electricity of Tension—A Dual Power—Methods of exciting it—Attraction and Repulsion—Conduction—Electrics and Non-electrics—Induction—Dielectrics—Tension—Law of the Electric Force—Distribution—Laws of Distribution—Heat of Electricity—Electrical Light and its Spectrum—Velocity—Atmospheric Electricity—Its cause—Electric Clouds—Violent effects of Lightning—Back Stroke—Electric Glow—Phosphorescence.