Picture - Cosmic Polymath

238 DESIGN IN NATURE
necessary, under certain circumstances, to establish an equilibrium which is invariably beneficial. The aggre-
gating and marshalUng, and the breaking up and distributing of matter goes on incessantly, but the synthetic
and analytic processes are all under control and supervision. Is a new molecule to be formed ? The atoms are
provided, assorted, and the necessary combining powers conferred. Is a certain cell required ? Atoms and
molecules of particular kinds are forthcoming for its production. Is a tissue, a gland, or a special organ a deside-
ratum ? Adequate and special preparations are made which exclude the possibility of failure. All these thmgs are
achieved not by accident but by design and forethought.
Is an old star, or sun, or system, to be destroyed and new ones formed ? They are broken up and thrown
into the seething, nebulous cauldron. From the white, molten, gaseous, formless mass, suddenly a centre of
attraction appears which assumes right or left spiral movements, and draws towards itself outlying nebulous matter
in ever-widening spiral streams ; or conversely, the spiral streams acting from without converge upon a central
point and so form a spiral nucleus. That heavenly bodies at times explode, fly ofl[ at tangents, and form new
combinations is well ascertained. A time arrives when the new sphere is completed and launched into space
on its own account.
Is an existing sun waning and wasting ? It is fed as regards heat and energy by effete bodies attracted to it,
and which, crossing its path and colliding, restore the lost energy and heat in the proportions required.
These cosmic and other operations are all planned. If there were not law, order, and method of the most
far-reaching description, catastrophes of the most appalling kind would be incessantly occurring. The fact that
they do not occur, or to the most trifling extent, is the most convincing proof we can possibly have that design
reigns supreme in the universe.
Until a comparatively recent period the atom was regarded as the smallest conceivable particle. Sir William
Crookes, however, showed (circa 1870) that matter in a still more minute state of division than the atom existed,
that in fact the atom itself was formed by the coalescence of still more minute particles which pervaded space.
He claimed for matter a fourth estate, and maintained that there was a form of matter which could not strictly
be classed either as solid, liquid, or gaseous in the ordinary sense ; the said matter being ultra or super-divided and
separated. The subject has recently (1903) been taken up by Sir Ohver Lodge. I refer to his researches in passing
because of their supposed intimate connection with the ultimate matter of the universe. Sir Oliver remarks that
the ultra or super-divided matter consists of fragments of matter, ultra-atomic corpuscles, minute things, very much
smaller, very much lighter than atoms—things which appear to be the foundation-stones of which atoms are com-
posed. Professor J. J. Thomson measured the mass of these particles and found that they were of less mass than
the atom of hydrogen ; whereas the atom of hydrogen had been the lightest body hitherto known. These small
corpuscles, also called electrons, were about the one-thousandth of an atom of hydrogen in mass, and he further
made this important observation, that whether hydrogen or oxygen or carbonic acid, or any other gas was in
Crookes's tube, the particles into which these substances seemed to be broken up by electric action were identical
and independent of the nature of the gas in the tube. The speed at which the corpuscles travel was found to be
something comparable to that of light— about one-thirtieth or sometimes even one-tenth of the velocity of hght.
Anything moving with the prodigious speed of several thousand miles per second must have a great amount of
energy, and, when stopped by a target, naturally considerable results are produced :
their inertia is extremely small,
but a body, no matter how small, moving \vith the speed of light, must have terrible energy. M. Becquerel was
the first to discover the radio-active powers of matter. In the researches of Dr. Russell various substances were
found to possess this quaUty of giving out something on their own account. The most important developments
were made by Monsieur and Madame Curie in France, who found that polonium possessed the properties of
uranium, and that radium in turn possessed the properties of uranium in a most extraordinary degree. The rays
given off by these substances are of extraordinary interest ; they have marvellous penetrating powers, and are
very intense— more intense than the X-rays given by a Rontgen tube. Radium rays will not only penetrate a foot
of aluminium or wood, but they will penetrate three-eighths of an inch of lead, and then be as strong as are the
rays from uranium. There are three kinds of radiation :
(1) particles which are readily stopped by obstacles, absorb-
able rays ; (2) the particles which penetrate obstacles with singularly penetrating power ; and (3) the ordinary X-rays.
The X-rays are waves in the ether—not hght. The penetrating rays are electrons which are shot off. But the
most interesting are the first rays, those which are easily stopped ; for these turn out to be atoms of matter shot
ofT with a speed comparable to that of hght. Professor Rutherford, now of Montreal, has measured for the first
time the speed of these readily stopped, absorbable particles, and also their mass. He shows that they are atoms
of matter, and that they are moving with one-tenth of the velocity of light.
The size of the electrons is about one hundred thousandth part of the diameter of an atom, otherwise they
would not have sufficient inertia. They are the smallest bodies known. The electrons occupy the atom very effec-