Picture - Cosmic Polymath

I04 DESIGN IN NATURE
LINES OF FORCE IN CONNECTION WITH MAGNETISM, ELECTRICITY, OPTICAL PHENO-
MENA, &c., AS BEARING UPON STRAIGHT-LINE, CURVED, AND SPIRAL FORMATIONS
IN PLANTS AND ANIMALS
The peculiar straight-line, curved, and spiral formations due to radiating, concentric, and other arrangements
witnessed in crystals, plants, and animals, which are discussed and illustrated in the early sections of this work,
have their representatives in the physical universe. They are seen to advantage in the action of magnets, electricity,
&c., upon iron-filings and other substances. Generally speaking, they correspond to the " lines of force "
produced by these agencies, and are physically and physiologically of the greatest possible importance, from the
fact that they are fundamental and, within limits, common to animate and inanimate bodies. The distribution
of matter in the organic and inorganic kingdoms opens up a wide subject, but it has such an obvious bearing on
a First Cause and Design that it is necessary to treat it more or less exhaustively. It is now known that almost
all substances are magnetic, and the relation between magnetism and electricity is of the closest possible kind
indeed the majority of physicists believe that they are different forms of one and the same thing. It is necessary
to take up these subjects more or less in detail.
To Franklin, Beccaria, Galvani, Oersted, Davy, and Faraday primarily, and to Maxwell, Kelvin, Helmholtz,
and Henry secondarily, is due most of our knowledge regarding magnetism and electricity.
The researches of Heinrich Hertz have confirmed the modern conceptions of these subjects. Professor H. Ebert
in a recent work ^ has further simplified matters by utilising the conception of lines of force in the systematic
exposition of the phenomena concerned. He lays special emphasis on three fundamental ideas, namely, (a) that of
lines of force ; (b) that of energy in a magnetic or electro-magnetic field ; and (c) that of the symmetry of a
medium which is the seat of magnetic force. He points out that magnetic attraction is not due to fluids concen-
trated at certain points, but to pressxires and tensions in the field surrounding the attracting bodies. According
to him, " When an electrical current is flowing, the seat of the phenomenon is not the conductor merely :
the most
important part of the whole phenomenon takes place in the field of magnetic force surrounding the conductor.
It is accordingly to these fields, and the forces continuously propagated through them from point to point, that
the highest interest is attached."
§ 22. The Lodestone.
In considering the subject of magnetism and electricity and lines of magnetic force it is necessary to say a
few words regarding natural and artificial magnets.
The natural magnet, or lodestone, which is a certaia native oxide of iron, termed magnetic iron ore, possesses
the remarkable property of attracting iron-filings.
When or by whom this property was originally discovered is not known, but the Greeks called such iron ore
fxayv^Tcs, from the name, as it is supposed, of a shepherd who first observed its property.
PUny describes it under the name of " magnes," a term derived from Magnesia, a province of Lydia in Asia Minor.
This iron ore consists chiefly of the two oxides of that metal (FeO, Fe^O ) or Fe .
The term lodestone has been derived from leading stone, i.e. " lode," a way, for the directive properties of the
magnet were for many years utilised for navigation purposes before its other properties were imderstood. Many of
these other properties, but to a far less extent, are exhibited by the ore of nickel, cobalt, and a few other metals.
The powers possessed by the natural magnet are extraordinary and peculiar. Thus it is found that if a natural
magnet be dipped in iron-filings, tufts and strings of the iron-filings adhere to it, especially at its corners and edges.
The magnet exerts a special influence on the filings, and the tufts and strings of filings increase in length; the
particles attached acquiring the properties of the lodestone and attracting others. The force exerted is greatest
nearest the magnet. It is diminished as the magnet is receded from ; a point being reached when the attracting
f .,,' p^^ forgoing was written by me in the summer of 1902. Early in November 1905 I received in due course my copy of the "Proceedings
n iv^Wt tI^\ '? ""^'"^ y"""i ^^''P'' ^;*^ *^'''. P^''*'^ by Marcus Hartog, M.A., D.Sc, entitled "The Dual We of the Dividing
Cell (Part I; The Achromatic Spmdle Figure Illustrated by Magnetic Chains of Force). As this paper traverses much of the ground oceS
by me more than. two years before Mr. Hartog's paper appeared, and as his plates and figures, in some cases, greatly resemble mv own I deem it
important to mention the fact. There is this difference between us : Mr. Hartog confines his observations and illustrations to the "dividing rell "
a.9 seen m reproduction. I, on the other hand, endeavour to establish a parallel between vital and physical lines of force as witnessed m not oulv
reproduction, but also m growth generally, as seen in plants and animals at every period of their life histories. In other words, I endeavour to
show that every part of plants and animals has its analogue in the inorganic kingdom. I give a wider scope to the inquiry, and noint o,ii-
tliat the general shape of plants and animals, and the particular form of all their parts, have their prototypes in the inorganic kingdom T iln
not, however, attempt to identify electricity and life, or to substitute physical force for vital force. These I regard as separate entities
"Magnetic Fields of Force—An Exposition of the Phenomena of Magnetism, Electro-magnetism, and Induction based on the ' s - Concentm^ v^onception „