34 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



rank are aggressively championing the dynamic theory of matter, and 

 as each unexpected discovery, hurrying upon the heels of its predecessor, 

 brings support to the theory, its opponents seem conscious of engaging 

 in a losing fight. 



Before passing to the chief evidence, I will just mention some curi- 

 ous experiments of the Hindu physicist, Dr. Bose, a professor in Cal- 

 cutta University, which indicate the trend of the more advanced re- 

 search that is now being prosecuted, and indirectly support the dynamic 

 theory, by tending to show that metals, at least, are not dead, but alive, 

 bundles of activities like living animals. Dr. Bose's book, " The 

 Besponse of Matter," I have not been able to secure ; the quotation that 

 follows is from a notice of it in the London Revieiv of Reviews. 

 Dr. Bose's discovery is, that stimulated metals give back, under proper 

 conditions of observation, the electric response that has been thought 

 peculiar to, and characteristic of, organic or living matter, and, with 

 variation of conditions, vary their response just as organic matter does: 



When the metals were stimulated by a pinch they also made their auto- 

 graphic records by electric twitches, and thus, being responsive, showed that 

 they could in no sense be called " dead " ! Nay, more, it was found that given 

 the records for living muscle, nerves and metals, it was impossible to dis- 

 tinguish one record from another. For the metals also, when continuously 

 excited, showed gradual fatigue; as with ourselves, so with them, a period 

 of repose revived their power of response — even a tepid bath was found help- 

 ful in renewing vigor; freezing brought on cold torpidity, and too great a 

 rise of temperature brought heat rigor. . . . 



Death can be hastened by poison. Then can the metals be poisoned? In 

 answer to this was shown the most astonishing part of Professor Bose's experi- 

 ments. A piece of metal which was exhibiting electric twitches was poisoned; 

 it seemed to pass through an electric spasm, and at once the signs of its 

 activity grew feebler, till it became rigid. A dose of some antidote was next 

 applied; the substance began slowly to revive, and after a while gave it3 

 normal response once more. 



But it is not upon such experimental curiosities that the dynamic 

 theory of matter is based, significant as they may be of the future dis- 

 coveries of science. It is more substantially founded upon the evidence 

 of the spectroscope, the fast-growing knowledge of electricity, and the 

 marvelous results of the experiments on radio-active substances. Becent 

 publications have made these facts familiar, and it will only be neces- 

 sary to recall them briefly, grouping them in such wise as to suggest 

 their significance as clearly as possible. 



There has been a disposition among scientists for the last half cen- 

 tury, growing constantly stronger, and finally becoming nearly irre- 

 sistible, to look upon Dalton's atoms as divisible, therefore misnamed, 

 and not the ultimate constituents of matter. Suspicion was first cast 

 upon their simplicity and ultimateness when the spectroscope disclosed 

 several distinct lines in the spectrum of each element; and was rein- 

 forced when it appeared that some elements had two or even three 

 distinct spectra. Nor was the case bettered when it was found that 



