THE ATMOSPHERE.
A Veritable Ocean.
The great aërial ocean which we call the atmosphere (at the bottom of which we live, and move, and have our being), is even more vitally important than has ever been dreamed of in human philosophy.
How Constituted.
Its tangible constituents, such as clouds, vapors, gases, are well understood; as well as the modifying influence of those atmospheric elements upon what we call sunlight, and sun-heat. But the intangible and vital principle, or basis of the atmosphere, has in a measure escaped recognition. This principle is vito-magnetic in its character, and may be designated as static,[12] from its habit when in equilibrium, and also in contradistinction from that vast flood of active fluid which fills the solar cone-space.
Extent and Character of this Influence.
The whole globe and its surrounding atmosphere are vast reservoirs of this static fluid. These, interacting freely through continuity, virtually become one in their operations. As a constituent of the atmosphere this fluid is nearly uniform in its proportions. Its varying conditions, as positive, negative, and neutral, form a marked peculiarity. Changes from one to another of these conditions, over larger or smaller areas, are affected with marvellous rapidity, and with varying and sometimes with striking results.
In the extremes of atmospheric temperature, this fluid is found to exist in the extremes of its positive and negative conditions. The contrast is by some supposed to exist in the seasons of winter and summer, in proportions as 13 to 1, (heretofore regarded as quantitive).
Note the Functions of this Ocean.
This fluid is indeed the vital principle, upon which all life, animate and inanimate, depends. The necessity for frequent respirations is occasioned by the imperative demands of the system for this agent. As before intimated, the mild and steady light which illumines the earth in its day-season is owing to the action of the active fluid of the cone-space upon the static fluid of the atmosphere. The untempered force of the former might not be endured. The pale and steady light of the moon and planets is due to a like reaction through the same agencies.
The relations which the present known constituents of the atmosphere sustain to this fluid may not at the present time be estimated.
Not yet fully Comprehended.
"Air," said Sir Lyon Playfair, "is the most familiar of substances; the first with which an infant becomes acquainted on entrance into the world, and in death, the last to be given up; yet, strange to say, its nature and constitution have only become partially understood within the past century, and even now scientific knowledge can only be regarded as on the threshold of the subject."
The novelty and the assurance of the concluding lines of the above quotation would, at a comparatively recent date, have excited in the reader a great astonishment. We had supposed that the constituents, and the functions of our atmosphere were very well understood, that little, if anything, could be learned by further investigation. Yet the revelations which are now being made show the assertion of Sir Lyon Playfair to be almost prophetic.
The vito-magnetic, the most important ingredient, has scarcely been referred to in any formula of its constitution. This constituent as previously stated, forms the bulk of the atmosphere, and upon it depends the principal performance of its varied functions. More vital than oxygen, without it life could not be sustained for an hour.
Have we been Mistaken?
The experiments of M. Pasteur have demonstrated that oxygen and light are not essentials of life, as he developed life in the dark, in an atmosphere of carbonic acid.
New Light.
More recent discoveries verify the presence of this comparatively unappreciated constituent.
The process of induction has ever been a great mystery in electrical science. Magnetic currents are known to act upon bodies in close proximity without the intervention of a spark, and to indue such bodies with magnetic force. This action, called induction, has been supposed to be limited to short distances. This we believe to be erroneous. In order that the inductive process take place, it is only necessary to suppose some impulse to be superinduced upon some pervading medium. This medium we recognize in the static vito-magnetic constituent of the atmosphere. Magnetic or electrical induction is therefore nature's effort towards an equilibrium. Newly-discovered phenomena show that this process is carried on even at considerable distances. To Prof. Loomis of New Haven, Conn., we are indebted for experiments which illustrate this fact. These experiments show that magnetic communications may be made through ten miles of space without the intervention of visible means of conduction. The employment of wires is rendered unnecessary by reason of the presence of the vito-magnetic fluid which operates in restoring the disturbed equilibrium. Magnetic currents are therefore not essential to this phenomenon.
A wonderful exhibition of this power was recently observed at Rochester, N. Y. In a telephonic exhibition in this city, the musicians were located in Buffalo, sixty-eight miles distant. While Prof. Johnson was engaged in preparatory practice during the afternoon, the notes from Buffalo were distinctly heard at the same time, in a city business office, at some distance from the hall of exhibition. Yet the wire used by the Professor, and that employed in the private telephone, were at no point less than ten feet apart. The same phenomenon was observed during the progress of the exhibition in another locality, the two lines still being no nearer than ten feet to each other.
The Character and Virtue of this Element may not be Mistaken.
It is this vito-magnetic element, and not some other ingredient, that renders the atmosphere so sympathetic, and responsive, to the governing Force resident in the sun, and in the earth-core. The atmosphere thus not only furnishes the field of operation for the manifold Force, co-operating between the sun and earth, but is itself the medium and instrument of the operations.
The vito-magnetic power under its Protean forms, styled "Vital Forces," and "The Physical Forces," works in the atmosphere and is the source of nearly all its phenomena. It causes and directs movements in every province of nature. Nothing else has so intimate relations with animal and vegetable life and growth. It may be considered as constituting the inherent virtue of the atmosphere.
Among the varying manifestations in which this agent is disclosed to us, within and beyond the atmosphere, may be enumerated the following, viz.: 1, Linear lightning; 2, Ball lightning; 3, The flash with reverberations; 4, Heat lightning; 5, Aurora; 6, Frictional or mechanical; 7, Magnetic; 8, Vital; 9, St. Elmo's Fires; 10, The exaggerated wave which bears destruction in its pathway; 11, That disclosed by rain, hail, snow, and fog; 12, Sunlight, and sun-heat; 13, Static, or atmospheric; 14, Zodiacal light; 15, Corona, etc., etc.