MATTER 267 



consist of the same elements of ether. In this theory 

 an atom is conceived to be a point at which ether flows 

 in all directions into space ; such a point is termed 

 an ether-squirt. An ether-squirt in the ether is thus 

 something like a tap turned on under water, except that 

 the machinery of the tap is dispensed with in the case of 

 the squirt. Two such squirts, if placed in ether, move 

 relatively to each other, exactly like two gravitating 

 particles, the mass of either corresponding to the mean 

 rate at which ether is poured in at the squirt. From 

 periodic variations of the rate of squirting, as influenced 

 by the mutual action of groups of squirts, we are able to 

 deduce many of the phenomena of chemical action, 

 cohesion, light, and electro-magnetism. Indeed the ether- 

 squirt seems a conceptual mechanism capable of describing 

 a very considerable range of phenomena. It involves, of 

 course, the conception of negative matter, or ether-sinks ; 

 for the amount squirted into an incompressible fluid must 

 be at least equalled by the amount which passes out. As, 

 however, an ether- squirt and an ether- sink must be 

 conceived to repel each other, there need be no surprise 

 that we are compelled to consider our portion of the 

 universe as built up of positive matter ; the negative 

 matter, or ether-sinks, would long ago have passed out of 

 the range of the ether-squirts.^ 



^11 . — A Material Loophole into the Supersensuous 



Now the reader may naturally ask : Where can we 

 conceive the ether to come from when it pours in at the 

 squirt or prime-atom ? In taking the ether-squirt as a 

 model dynamical system for the atom, we are not bound 

 to answer this question in order to demonstrate its validity, 

 any more than we are bound to explain why ether and 



' Carnelley, however, demanded an element of negative atomic weight, and 

 a substance of negative weight is by no means inconceivable. Should the 

 reader be interested in a mathematical account of this theory he may consult : 

 "Ether-squirts; Being an Attempt to Specialise the Form of Ether-Motion 

 which forms an Atom in a Theory propounded in former Papers," American 

 Journal of Mathematics, vol. xiii. pp. 309-62. See also Camb. Phil. Trans. 

 vol. xiv. p. 71 ; London Math. Society, vol. xx. pp. 38 and 297. 



