Some unrecognized laws of nature : an inquiry into the causes of physical phenomena, with special reference to gravitation / by Ignatius Singer and Lewis H. Berens.

  • Singer, Ignatius
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some unrecognized laws of nature : an inquiry into the causes of physical phenomena, with special reference to gravitation / by Ignatius Singer and Lewis H. Berens. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    SOME UNRECOGNIZED LAWS OF NATURE BOOK I ON METHODS OF INQUIRY CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The confirmation of theories relies on the compact adaptation of their parts, by which, like those of an arc or dome, they mutually sustain each other, and farm a coherent wfiole.—BACON. THE object of this essay will, perhaps, be best described as an inversion of the task which Sir Isaac Newton set himself in his famous work. That is, whereas Newton's object was ' only to trace out the quantity and properties of this force [of gravity] from the phenomena and to apply these in a mathematical way . . . and to avoid all questions about the nature or quality of this force,' our present object is to trace out the nature and quality (to use Newton's own expression) of this force and to avoid all quantitative deter- minations. In short, while Newton's labours were directed solely towards the ascertainment of the vis gravitatis, the present essay is to be devoted exclusively to the ascertain- ment of the causa gravitatis. From this it will be seen at once that, although the phenomena under consideration are the same in both cases, B