CORPUSCULAR • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Corpuscular

... mathematically, while he saw no way for thus dealing with the other. His mechanical instincts were more to be trusted than his carefully calculated results; for, as all know, what he called "spirits," is what to-day we call the ether, and the corpuscular theory of light has now no more than a historic interest. The corpuscular theory was a mechanical conception, but each such corpuscle was ideally endowed with qualities which were out of all relation with the ordinary matter ...

— The Machinery of the Universe - Mechanical Conceptions of Physical Phenomena • Amos Emerson Dolbear