Produced by Andrew Wainwright and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS. "In knowledge, that man only is to be contemned and despised who is not in a state of transition." "--nor is there anything more adverse to accuracy than fixity of opinion."--FARADAY. "Science must grow. Its development is as necessary, and as irresistible as the motion of the tides, or the flowing of the Gulf Stream."--TYNDALL. "The cry of science is still onward, and its goal of yesterday will ever be its starting-point to-morrow."--DAWSON. *.* May be procured through all booksellers. It will be sent by mail, _postage free_, on receipt of price, $1.00 cloth, 50 cts. paper. Liberal discount to the trade. Per C. K. ABEL & SON, BOOKSELLERS, Dunkirk, N. Y. NEW AND ORIGINAL THEORIES OF THE GREAT PHYSICAL FORCES. BY HENRY RAYMOND ROGERS, M.D. "Every time Serves for the matter then born in it." SHAKSPERE. PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. MDCCCLXXVIII. COPYRIGHT, 1878. BY HENRY RAYMOND ROGERS. TROW'S PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING CO., _205-213 East 12th St._, NEW YORK. PREFACE. "Show me a man who makes no mistakes, and I will show you a man who has done nothing."--LIEBIG. In this little volume the author gives but his own personal opinions upon the subjects discussed, and although the sentiments are expressed with an assurance born of conviction, yet he claims not infallibility. He has ever been unable to accept the usual explanations of the great physical forces; and the inadequacies of mooted theories have impelled him to efforts for more philosophical interpretations. If in his investigations he has been forced to strange and unusual conclusions, he has been actuated only by an honest desire to promote the advancement of science. He is not insensible to the responsibility of the position which he thus voluntarily assumes, in asserting his opinions upon problems so vast and momentous.