The general and particular principles of animal electricity and magnetism, &c. In which are found Dr. Bell's secrets ... / [John Bell].

  • Bell, John
Date:
1792
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The general and particular principles of animal electricity and magnetism, &c. In which are found Dr. Bell's secrets ... / [John Bell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [ 6] In many cafes, art can imitate nature, and even furpafs it; (as a proof) an Artificial Magnet is {pecifically more aétive than a natural one.* Nature, conftant in her proceedings, by giving a magnetic virtue to a quantity of iron, does not determine its poles, but in the points which are di- ametrically oppofite, and in a right line. It is na- tural to conclude from hence, that nature has an uniform manner of acting, but direéted by the knowledge of man, the is capable of encreafing that power, and of concentrating, by her ftrength, in a determined point, That there exifts an invifible Auid from its a@ion upon iron is well demonftrated. Is it to be fup- poled, that the great and fupreme Architect of the World, in his vaft and profound views, would have created the general currents, which apparently rule. the univerfe, only to put in activity a part of mat- ter, called iron, merely to enable us to form Arti- ficial Magnets, which, in their turn, fhould be only empowered to inftruét us how the tendency and reciprocity of the aélion of bodies one towards the other are exercifed, as has been demonftrated. 7 In that great hypothefis, let us examine if the is parts * IT have feen at my friend’s, Mr. L’?Abbé le Noble’s, at Paris, an Artificial Magnet of his compofition, the adtivity of which was fo ftreng, as to carry more than 300 weight.
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