Cosmos, Vol. 4

rotational magnetism original: "Rotations-Magnetismus"; a phenomenon where a rotating non-magnetic conductor interacts with a magnet, discovered shortly before this text was written, which is excited even through drippable liquids or those frozen into ice; the successful attempt to view all chemical affinity as a consequence of the electrical relations of atoms with a predominating polar force; the theory of isomorphic substances substances that share the same crystal form despite different chemical compositions in application to crystal formation; many phenomena of the electrical state of living muscle fiber; and the hard-won knowledge of the influence of the sun's position (the temperature-increasing solar rays) on the greater or lesser magnetic susceptibility and reproductive power of a constituent of our atmosphere: oxygen. When something unexpectedly glimmers in the physical world from a still unknown group of phenomena, one can believe oneself all the closer to new discoveries, especially when the relationships to what has already been fathomed seem unclear or even contradictory.

I have preferably cited such examples in which the dynamic effects of motor-attraction forces seem to open the paths upon which one might hope to approach the solution to the problems of the original, immutable, and therefore called "elementary" heterogeneity of substances (oxygen, hydrogen, sulfur, potash, phosphorus, tin), and of the measure of their striving for union (their chemical affinity). Differences in form and composition are, however—I repeat it here—the elements of our entire knowledge of matter; they are the abstractions under which we believe we grasp the all-moving totality of the world, measuring and decomposing it at the same time. The detonation of fulminate salts original: "knallsaurer Salze"; highly explosive compounds like fulminate of mercury at a slight mechanical pressure, and the even more fearsome,