Picture - Cosmic Polymath

NEW THEORY OF MATTER 185
" To obtain any adequate conception of their size we must betake ourselves to a scheme of threefold magnifica-
tion. Lord Kelvin has shown that, if a drop of water were magnified to the size of the earth, the molecules of
water would be of a size intermediate between that of a cricket-ball and of a marble. Now each molecule contains
three atoms, two being of hydrogen and one of oxygen. The corpuscles may stand to the atom in a similar scale
of magnitude. Accordingly a threefold magnification would be needed to bring these ultimate parts of the atom
within the range of our ordinary scales of measurement. We must return to the intermediate stage of magnifica-
tion, in which we consider those communities of atoms which form molecules. This is the field of research of the
chemist.
" Communities of atoms are called chemical combinations, and we know that they possess every degree of
stability. The existence of some is so precarious that the chemist in his laboratory can barely retain them for a
moment ; others are so stubborn that he can barely break them up. In this case dissociation and re-union into
new forms of communities are in incessant and spontaneous progress throughout the world.
" Stability is, further, a property of relationship to surrounding conditions ; it denotes adaptation to
environment."
In this connection it may be well to state that Professor De Launay, in an article on " The Evolution of Matter,"
argues that since uranium changes into radium, and radium changes into helium, there is, in general, a spontaneous
evolution of matter going on. He mentions that M. Curie was asking himself whether not merely this uranium-radiumhelium
group, but all chemical elements, have a certain duration of life, like organised beings, but relatively much
longer than that of the radium group.
Matter, as the fundamental substratum of life and being, is invested with quite an extraordinary interest. This
interest is enhanced when it is remembered that matter and mind are indissolubly associated in living beings.
From the earHest times the nature and composition of matter has engaged the attention of mankind.
Time was when the physical universe was believed to consist of various kinds of ponderable matter combined
in various ways and scattered throughout space, subject to the laws of motion, the influence of chemical affinity,
temperature, &c. ;
retaining its mass unchanged, and exercising, at all distances, a force of attraction on other material
masses according to the great law of gravitation.
There were then certain imponderables, of which heat (phlogiston) was one, two elastic fluids, and corpuscular
emanations to constitute light. The all-absorbing subjects of magnetism and electricity were comparatively
unknown. Matter was believed to be indestructible, and one of its distinguishing characteristics was that it acted
at a distance. No mention was yet made of the law of the conservation and dissipation of energy. Neither
had the undulatory theory of fight been worked out, nor the existence of ether, as a continuous substance, occupy-
ing all space, and which made strain or instantaneous direct action, as opposed to action at a distance, possible,
been mooted.
About a century ago Young opened the controversy which estabUshed the undulatory theory of light, and
necessitated the existence of a continuous medium, that medium being the modern ether, i The universal presence
of ether in the universe necessary for the transmission of light not only makes action by strain or at first hand, as
opposed to action at a distance, possible, but also accounts for the propagation of sound, the magnetic field, and
the electric waves of wireless telegraphy.
Faraday was the first to indicate the true nature of the magnetic field, and to estabhsh the doctrine of
strain or immediate action as opposed to gravitation or action at a distance.
Magnetism had been known from the time of Thales {circa 600 B.C.), and it was a common experiment in all
physical laboratories to show that pieces of amber or sticks of seahng-wax, if briskly rubbed with a silk hand-
kerchief or chamois skin, attracted Ught substances such as hairs, small pieces of cork, &c.
The nature of the attraction was, however, a mystery ; the magnetic field was not understood, neither was
the relation between magnetism and electricity fully made out. The existence of electric currents, while suspected,
had not been demonstrated. Benjamin Frankhn by means of his kite and moist string drew lightning from the
thunder-cloud, and Galvani and his assistant observed that the muscles of frogs suspended by wires were made to
twitch during thunder-storms. There was evidently a connection, a something in common, in all these phenomena.
The presence of ether, or a continuous inter-stellar substance occupying all space, furnished the key wherewith
to unlock the secrets of the new discoveries.
Matter had long been regarded as indestructible, and the question arose as to whether matter and force were
separate and distinct entities or were associated, and, if associated, whether they were always associated or only
occasionally. Modern research proved that force inheres in matter, and is exerted by it either as strain (action
1 While the theory of an all-prevailing ether had been broached before Young's day, it may be said to have been established by him and
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