On the side of pure theory we find the eager collection of experimental data to be submitted to the scrutiny of the ablest and brightest minds, to be examined and reasoned upon with the hope of finding some clew to satisfying explanations, and on the side of practice we find the search for new facts and relations no less diligent, though often stimulated by practical problems presented for solution.  Indeed, the urgency for results is often the greater on the practical side, for theory can wait, practice cannot, at least in the United States.

We must look for continued triumphs in both directions, and the most welcome of all will be the framing of a theory or explanation which will enable us to interpret magnetic and electric phenomena.  The recent beautiful experiments of Hertz on magnetic waves have opened a fertile region for investigation.

It would seem that the study of magnetism and electricity will give us the ability to investigate the ether of space, which medium has been theorized upon at great length, with the result of leaving it very much where it was before, a mysterious necessity.

Faraday says, speaking of magnetism: 

“Such an action may be a function of the ether, for it is not at all unlikely that if there be an ether it should have other uses than simply the conveyance of radiations.” 3,075.  Vol.  III., Exp.  Res.

    “It may be a vibration of the hypothetical ether, or a state of
    tension of that ether equivalent to either a dynamic or a static
    condition,” etc. 3,263.  Vol.  III., Exp.  Res.

Faraday again says, speaking of the magnetic power of a vacuum: 

    “What that surrounding magnetic medium deprived of all material
    substance may be I cannot tell, perhaps the ether.” 3,277.  Vol. 
    III., Exp.  Res.

Modern views would seem to point that through a study of magnetic phenomena we may take a feeble hold upon the universal ether.  Magnetism is an action or condition of that medium, and it may be that electrical actions are the expression of molecular disturbances brought about by ether strains or interferences.  The close relations which are shown to exist between magnetism and light tend to strengthen such views.  Indeed, it would not be too much to expect that if the mechanics of the ether are ever worked out, we should find the relation between sensible heat and electric currents to be as close as that of light to magnetism, perhaps find ultimately the forms of matter, the elements and compounds to be the more complex manifestations of the universal medium—­aggregations in stable equilibrium.  It is a difficult conception, I confess, and a most shadowy and imperfect one, yet facts and inferences which favor such views are not wanting.

Our science of electricity seems almost to be in the same condition that chemistry was before the work of Lavoisier had shed its light on chemical theory.  Our store of facts is daily increasing, and apparently disconnected phenomena are being brought into harmonious relation.  Perhaps the edifice of complete theory will not be more than begun in our time, perhaps the building process will be a very gradual one, but I cannot refrain from the conviction that the intelligence of man will, if it has time, continue its advance until such a structure exists.