So also the modifications which the phenomena of magnetic
hysteresis or the variations of resistivity have just demonstrated.
Many theorists have taken in hand these difficult questions. M.
Brillouin endeavours to interpret these various phenomena by the
molecular hypothesis. The attempt may seem bold, since these phenomena
are, for the most part, essentially irreversible, and seem,
consequently, not adaptable to mechanics. But M. Brillouin makes a
point of showing that, under certain conditions, irreversible
phenomena may be created between two material points, the actions of
which depend solely on their distance; and he furnishes striking
instances which appear to prove that a great number of irreversible
physical and chemical phenomena may be ascribed to the existence of
states of unstable equilibria.
M. Duhem has approached the problem from another side, and endeavours
to bring it within the range of thermodynamics. Yet ordinary
thermodynamics could not account for experimentally realizable states
of equilibrium in the phenomena of viscosity and friction, since this
science declares them to be impossible.
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