CHAPTER V.
HISTORICAL SKETCH: THE DISSIPATION OF
ENERGY.
182. In the last chapter we have endeavoured to exhibit the various transmutations of energy, and, while doing so, to bring forward evidence in favour of the theory of conservation, showing that it enables us to couple together known laws, and also to discover new ones—showing, in fine, that it bears about with it all the marks of a true hypothesis.
It may now, perhaps, be instructive to look back and endeavour to trace the progress of this great conception, from its first beginning among the ancients, up to its triumphant establishment by the labours of Joule and his fellow-workers.
183. Mathematicians inform us that if matter consists of atoms or small parts, which are actuated by forces depending only upon the distances between these parts, and not upon the velocity, then it may be demonstrated that the law of conservation of energy will hold good. Thus we see that conceptions regarding atoms and their
