192 J. MORISON : ADDRESS 



energy. Heat, light, electricity, etc., represent vmstable forms 

 of the same energy." " In disspciating atoms, that is to say, 

 in dematerialising matter, one only transforms the stable form 

 of energy named matter into those unstable forms known as 

 electricity, heat, light, etc. Matter is then continually being 

 transformed into energy." Most of us will not, I think, be 

 inclined to go quite so far as M. Le Bon. 



Let us go over the principal points. 



We have seen that matter is built up of molecules, and that 

 molecules are composed of one, two, or more atoms. In mono- 

 atomic bodies the molecule and atom are identical, but in most 

 cases the molecule is composed of at least two atoms, while in 

 organic compounds the atoms composing the molecule may be 

 very numerous. The atoms vary very considerably in size and 

 mass, the heaviest atoms being nearly 240 times as massive as 

 the smallest, but they are all excessively minute. The diameter 

 of the smallest, the hydrogen atom, is estimated not to exceed the 

 one fifty millionth of an inch. Both molecules and atoms are 

 immersed in and surrounded by a perfectly homogeneous fluid 

 called the ether. The atoms are made up of a great number of 

 almost infinitely small bodies which have been called corpuscles. 

 The diameter of a corpuscle is not more than the one hundred 

 thousandth part of the diameter of a hydrogen atom, so that its 

 exceeding minuteness is absolutely inconceivable. In other 

 words, the length of one inch exceeds the diameter of a corpuscle 

 in about the same proportion as the distance separating the 

 Earth from the Sun (some 93 millions of miles) is greater than 

 one inch. The corpuscles are very sparsely distributed within 

 the atom, being separated in proportion to their size by 

 relatively enormous distances, the intervening spaces being filled 

 by ether. Sir Ohver Lodge says that if we imagine an atom of 

 hydrogen magnified to the size of an ordinary church the 

 corpuscles would appear about the size of grains of sand dashing 

 about and rotating round the interior with inconceivable velocity. 

 Strutt says that the corpuscles in an atom are separated from 

 each other by distances as great in proportion to their size as 

 those which separate the different planets in the Solar System 

 from each other. The corpuscles are contiuvially revolving 

 round the centre of the atom with absolutely inconceivable 

 rapidity. The ether in which the corpuscles are immersed is 

 positively electrified, constantly vibrating, that is to say, in one 

 special manner, while the corpuscles being negatively electrified 

 are continually vibrating in a different way. The corpuscles in 



