ELECTRONIC THEORY OF ELECTRICITY. 23 



vibrating electric particle attached to the atom which is the cause of 

 eye-affecting radiation or light. 



Lorentz, Helmholtz, Thomson and others have shown that such a 

 conception of atomic structure enables us to explain many electro-optic 

 phenomena which are inexplicable on any other theory. Maxwell's 

 theory that electric and magnetic effects are due to strains and stresses 

 in the aether, rendered an intelligible account of electric phenomena, so 

 to say, in empty space, and its verification by Hertz placed on a firm 

 basis the theory that the agencies we call electric and magnetic force are 

 affections of the aether. But the complications introduced by the 

 presence of matter in the electric and magnetic fields presented immense 

 difficulties which Maxwell's theory was not able to overcome. 



The electronic theory of electricity, which is an expansion of an idea 

 originally due to Weber, does not invalidate the ideas which lie at the 

 base of Maxwell's theory, but it supplements them by a new conception, 

 viz., that of the electron or electric particle as the thing which is moved 

 by electric force and which in turn gives rise to magnetic force as it 

 moves. The conception of the electron as a point or small region 

 towards which lines of strain in the aether converge, necessitates the 

 correlative motion of positive and negative electrons. We are then led 

 to ask whether the atom is not merely a collocation of electrons. If so, 

 all mechanical and material effects must be translated into the language 

 of electricity. We ought not to seek to create mechanical explanations 

 of electrical phenomena, but rather electrical ones of mechanical 

 effects. The inertia of matter is simply due to the inductance of the 

 electron, and ultimately to the time element which is involved in the 

 creation of aether strain in a new place. All the facts of electricity and 

 magnetism are capable of being restated in terms of the electron idea. 

 All chemical changes are due to the electric forces brought into existence 

 between atoms which have gained or lost electrons. If moving electrons 

 constitute an electric current, then electrons in rotation are the cause of 

 magnetic effects. In optics it is capable of giving a consistent explana- 

 tion of dispersion, absorption and anomalous dispersion and the relation 

 of the index of refraction to the dielectric constant. A scientific 

 hypothesis, with this wide embrace, which opens many closed doors 

 and enables us to trace out the hidden connection between such various 

 departments of physical phenomena, is one which must continue to 

 attract investigators. Physical enquirers are at present, however, 

 groping for guiding facts in this difficult field of investigation, but we 

 have confidence that mathematical and experimental research will in 

 due time bring the reward of greater light. 



