In the case of sound vibrations, on the other hand, it should be noted that experiment, consistently with the theory, proves that the speed increases with the amplitude, or, if you will, with the intensity.  M. Violle has published an important series of experiments on the speed of propagation of very condensed waves, on the deformations of these waves, and on the relations of the speed and the pressure, which verify in a remarkable manner the results foreshadowed by the already old calculations of Riemann, repeated later by Hugoniot.  If, on the contrary, the amplitude is sufficiently small, there exists a speed limit which is the same in a large pipe and in free air.  By some beautiful experiments, MM.  Violle and Vautier have clearly shown that any disturbance in the air melts somewhat quickly into a single wave of given form, which is propagated to a distance, while gradually becoming weaker and showing a constant speed which differs little in dry air at 0 deg.  C. from 331.36 metres per second.  In a narrow pipe the influence of the walls makes itself felt and produces various effects, in particular a kind of dispersion in space of the harmonics of the sound.  This phenomenon, according to M. Brillouin, is perfectly explicable by a theory similar to the theory of gratings.

CHAPTER III

PRINCIPLES

Sec. 1.  THE PRINCIPLES OF PHYSICS

Facts conscientiously observed lead by induction to the enunciation of a certain number of laws or general hypotheses which are the principles already referred to.  These principal hypotheses are, in the eyes of a physicist, legitimate generalizations, the consequences of which we shall be able at once to check by the experiments from which they issue.

Among the principles almost universally adopted until lately figure prominently those of mechanics—­such as the principle of relativity, and the principle of the equality of action and reaction.  We will not detail nor discuss them here, but later on we shall have an opportunity of pointing out how recent theories on the phenomena of electricity have shaken the confidence of physicists in them and have led certain scholars to doubt their absolute value.

The principle of Lavoisier, or principle of the conservation of mass, presents itself under two different aspects according to whether mass is looked upon as the coefficient of the inertia of matter or as the factor which intervenes in the phenomena of universal attraction, and particularly in gravitation.  We shall see when we treat of these theories, how we have been led to suppose that inertia depended on velocity and even on direction.  If this conception were exact, the principle of the invariability of mass would naturally be destroyed.  Considered as a factor of attraction, is mass really indestructible?