38 Journal of^ the ^Iitchei.l Society [Septcmhrr 



eclipse of 21st September, 1922, when we may liope to have miu-h 

 additional light thrown upon the whole subject, wliieh now presents, 

 it must be confessed, many difficulties. For example, according to 

 the new quantum theor}^ energy is radiated in a discontinuous fasliion 

 in very small amounts called quanta. The value of a quantum lias 

 been determined, but according to the Relativity theory, since it trav- 

 els with the speed of light, every quantum should a|)i)eai- infinite, 

 which it doesn't. 



Then, too, by no means all physicists agree with the tlieory, and 

 Abraham, for instance, has opposed it vigorously, warning us against 

 the ''Sirenenklaenge dieser Theorie." Many others, such as Sir Jo- 

 seph Larmor, Avhile not hostile, are lukewarm. T ronton says that Rela- 

 tivity is merely trying to remove the lion in the path by laying down 

 the general proposition that the existence of lions is an impossibility. 



The truth is that the theory is so new, so revolutionary, and so 

 difficult to understand, that the natural conservatism of science forces 

 it to make its way slowly. Then, too, the language in which it is 

 expressed in the articles scattered through the literature of the 

 subject is not easily "understanded of the people." As an example, 

 Larmor complains in one of his articles that a certain expression is 

 only "wrapping up in abstractions the simple statement that when at 

 any place the quadratic characteristic of the spatial extension in- 

 volves the differential of the co-ordinate specially related to time in 

 its product terms, then there is latent in it a specification of its own 

 mode of change at that place with respect to uniform space-time."' 

 You see what a "simple statement" in non-Euclidean Relativity 

 sounds like, and this may throw light on Einstein's reported saying 

 that he did not suppose there were more than twelve men on the earth 

 at present who can understand his theory fully. The surprising 

 thing about this statement is that he should have put the inimb<'r 

 so high as twelve. 



In conclusion, let us sum up the situation: I'onservatives in sci- 

 ence claim that at best Einstein has merely introduced some refine- 

 ments in our mathematical weapons of attack; but the radicals claim 

 that he has overthrowMi much of the older mechanics, has given the 

 coup de grace to the ether, and has started an entirely new chapter 

 in the development of human thought comparable onl.v to tluit beg\ni 

 by Galileo and Newton ; furthermore, tliat the Relativity i)oint of 



