28 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



WHAT IS MATTER? 1 



By Professor S. E. MEZES 



THE UNIVFRSITY OF TEXAS 



THIS question is at once the earliest and latest to excite scientific 

 curiosity. It was asked at the dawn of science by Thales and 

 Anaxemander, by Heracleitus, the gloomy, and Democritus, the smiling, 

 philosopher. And to-day, with all the resources of modern science at 

 their command, Thomson, Eamsay, Lodge and Eutherford are still 

 asking, What is matter? What is the stuff of which the world is 

 made? The great difference is that at last the solution seems about 

 ready for acceptance, a solution so simple that we must marvel at the 

 denseness of the human wit that so long failed, and in large measure 

 still fails, to recognize it, though it was proclaimed, in dark words 

 to be sure, by Heracleitus in the early fifth century B. c. 



There is, of course, no question as to the reality of matter. That 

 has never been seriously doubted. With the problem properly stated, 

 even Bishop Berkeley would not have done so, though unquestionably 

 he thought he did, and many since his day have been misled by his 

 self-deception. Berkeley merely disagreed, rightly, with the common 

 view of what matter is. Matter, he taught in effect, is very different 

 from what the man in the street thinks it to be. And to Berkeley's 

 real doctrine the doughty Dr. Johnson had no answer. By kicking 

 the stone, he reassured himself that matter is real, which needed no 

 proof, but failed to cast the faintest glow of light on what matter 

 is, which is the real question. 



Before reflection, all men think they know matter perfectly. Why, 

 they say, matter is the commonest thing in the world ; it is everywhere, 

 which is, of course, true. And they are likely to add at that stage, 

 Everything is matter, which is false as matter is ordinarily conceived. 

 But, if you are still unsatisfied and press to be told definitely what 

 matter is, the man in the street is likely to resort to the " when " 

 definition, so dear to childhood, as did Dr. Johnson, that colossal way- 

 farer. Matter is " when " you kick a stone, or when you see a tree, 

 or eat its fruit, or hear the thunder roll. Now, it goes without saying 

 that matter is in fact there when you do each of these things. But so 

 is much else besides, including yourself, the sorenes of your toe, if you 

 kick hard enough, the color you see, the savor you taste, and the sound 

 you hear. But matter, of course, is not pain, color, taste or sound, 

 any more than it is yourself or any other self. All these experiences of 



1 Presidential address before the Texas Academy of Science, revised and 

 adapted. 



