ELECTRICITY BURINa THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 855 



coveries, in research, and in matheniatical treatment of the various 

 pro])lems presented. Modern magnetism took form in the hands of 

 Rowhind, Hopkinson, Ewing-, and many other able workers. 



Has science any answer to make to the question, What is ekn-tricity? 

 We think not; nor has it any answer to make to the question, What is 

 energy ? The most that science can possibly expect to do is to extend 

 our horizon and permit us to acquire a deeper knowledge of the inti- 

 luate rekitions of things. We speak of the ether as the electrical 

 medium, and we acquire more and more knowledge of its properties 

 and actions as the years go by. Facts are gradually being accunudated 

 by workers in all departments of science, and there must follow gen- 

 eralizations which will bring into harmony the present discordancies 

 wdiere they appear. It will prol)ably be found that the electrical 

 pro]3erties of the ether are the fundamental ones on which the universe 

 is ])uilt and that the properties of matter, which we speak of as 

 mass, weight, inertia, cohesion, elasticit}^ etc., are dependent upon or 

 have their origin in the ether properties. Perhaps, just as light and 

 radiant heat have been shown to be electrical vibrations, gravitation 

 and the othei* properties may follow. True it is that electrical laws 

 are most sim])le, most delinite. Electrical measurements can be made 

 with the utmost accuracy and delicacy. Indications these are of its 

 fundamental and universal character. 



In order to account for the passage of light, radiant heat, magnet- 

 ism, and other forces through space science has need of what is called 

 th<' ether, a medium filling all space and propagating waves of heat 

 and light, as well as magnetic disturbances and gravitation. The sun 

 radiates to the earth luminous waves and heat waves. Moreover, it 

 has been shown that whenever there is a great cyclonic storm upon 

 the sun the earth sympathizes or receives influences which disturb the 

 compass needle. There is reason to believe that the eleven-year sun 

 spot periods find their expression upon the earth in the greater 

 frequency of displays of aurora borealis, magnetic storms, and even 

 thunderstorms following the more active storm period of the sun, 

 when the sun spots are most numerous. 



What, then, is the nature of this ether of spaced To this tpiestion 

 no complete answer can as yet be given, except to say that it is the 

 electro-magnetic medium. It is the ether and not the air which enables 

 a magnet to attract or repel, for the action occurs in the best vacuum, 

 undiminished. It is the ether and not the air which enables an electri- 

 fied body to act upon surrounding bodies in attracting or repelling 

 them. When we sit in front of an open fire, it is the ether which 

 brings the light and also the heat radiated to us. Early in the century 

 the theory that light consisted of ether vibrations of a particular char- 

 acter became the commonly accepted theory. It remained for Clerk 

 Maxwell, a mathematical physicist of the highest eminence, to put 



