The law may apparently be " a general rule " or " a tendency " which is liable to be " checked," or a particular case of the law of the conservation of energy.
The discovery that chemical action was involved in the process led to the advancement of the chemical theory of the pile and this was strengthened by the growing insight into the principle of the conservation of energy.
Thomson (Lord Kelvin), he may be regarded as one of the founders of the now universally received law of the conservation of energy.
The principle which he adopted is that of virtual velocities, a principle which under his hands was gradually transforming itself into what is now known as the principle of the conservation of energy.
On the other hand it is asserted that quite apart from any particular view as to the relation between mind and body the existence of the freedom of the will is necessarily incompatible with the principle of the conservation of energy and is therefore in direct contradiction to many if not most of the assured conclusions of the physical sciences.
