will do, my right. And now, my dear friend, I must conclude, and hasten to work again. But first give my kindest respects to Madame de la Rive, and many thanks to your brother for his call. Ever your obedient and affectionate friend, M. FARADAY. [Sidenote: MAGNETIC EXPERIMENTS.] The discovery of diamagnetism which Faraday thus announced was in itself a notable achievement. As Tyndall points out, the discovery itself was in all probability due to Faraday’s habit of not regarding as final any negative result of an experiment until he had brought to bear upon it the most powerful resources at his command. He had tried the effects of ordinary magnets on brass and copper and other materials commonly considered as non-magnetic. But when, for the purpose of the preceding research on the relation of magnetism to light, he had deliberately procured electromagnets of unusual power, he again tried what their effect might be upon non-magnetic stuffs. Suspending a piece of his heavy glass near the poles in a stirrup of writing-paper slung upon the end of a long thread of cocoon silk, he found it to experience a strong mechanical action when the magnet was stimulated by turning on the current. His precision of description is characteristic:-- I shall have such frequent occasion to refer to two chief positions of position across the magnetic field, that, to avoid periphrasis, I will here ask leave to use a term or two conditionally. One of these directions is that from pole to pole, or along the lines of magnetic force, I will call it the axial direction; the other is the direction perpendicular to this, and across the line of magnetic force and for the time, and as respects the space between the poles, I will call it the _equatorial_ direction. Note the occurrence in the above passage for the first time of the term “the magnetic field.” Faraday’s description of the discovery continues as follows:-- The bar of silicated borate of lead or heavy glass already described as the substance in which magnetic forces were first made effectually to bear on a ray of light, and which is 2 inches long, and about 0·5 inch wide and thick, was suspended centrally between the magnetic poles, and left until the effect of torsion was over. The magnet was then thrown into action by making contact at the voltaic battery. Immediately the bar moved, turning round its point of suspension, into a position across the magnetic curve or line of force, and, after a few vibrations, took up its place of rest there. On being displaced by hand from this position it returned to it, and this occurred many times in succession. [Illustration: FIG. 19.]