that we may discern that they are actually within our reach, we may instance, first, the almost newly invented sciences of electricity and galvanism, and of meteorology emanating from these two; all which bear especially on the last-named topic, viz., the nature and course of epidemics.
In this field of inquiry considerable vantage ground has already been established, and a luminous and succinct review of the present position of the question as to the true nature of light and electricity, has been drawn up by M. Saveney. He traces the course of investigation which has been pushed beyond the bare phenomenon of the electric spark, and of the appearances which that presents, even to the actual nature of the fluid of which the spark gives evidence.[1]
- ↑ The old theory of two fluids has been combated with success. Those phenomena which supported the idea of two currents—viz., the beautiful feathered escape from the positive pole and the starred appearance displayed at the negative—have, by some curious experiments and apparently sound deductions, been shown to be deceptive; and the starred appearance at the negative pole has been proved to be produced merely by recoil.
