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POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



AUGUST, 1903. 



MODEEN VIEWS ON MATTER* 



By Sir OLIVER LODGE, Hon.D.Sc, F.R.S. 



rriHE nature of matter has been regarded by philosophers from 

 -*- many points of view, but it is not from any philosophic stand- 

 point that I presume in this university to ask you to consider the 

 subject under my guidance. It is because new views as to the struc- 

 ture and properties of what used to be called the ultimate atom are 

 now being born, and because these views, whether they succeed in ulti- 

 mately establishing th-emselves in every detail or not, are of surpassing 

 interest, that I have chosen this very recently deciphered chapter of 

 science as the subject-matter for the lecture — the Eomanes lecture — 

 to be given this year in remembrance of a man whom I knew as a 

 friend, and whose mind, if he had been alive to-day, would have been 

 widely open to these most modern developments of physical science. 

 Nor would the admittedly speculative character of some of the hypoth- 

 eses now being thrown out have deterred him from hearing about them 

 with the keenest interest. 



If I may venture to say so, it is the more philosophical side of 

 physics which has always seemed to me most suitable for study in 

 this university; and although I disclaim any competence for philo- 

 sophic treatment in the technical sense, yet I doubt not that the new 

 views, in so far as they turn out to be true views, will have a bearing 

 on the theory of matter in all future writings on philosophy; besides 

 exercising a profound effect on the pure sciences of physics and chem- 

 istry, and perhaps having some influence on certain aspects of biology 

 also. 



* The Romanes Lecture, delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, June 

 12, 1903. Copyright by The Science Press, 

 VOL. LXIII. — 19. 



