Modern Science : A Criticism 



force but resistance ; another says that it is a centre 

 of force, without matter ; a third suggests that it is 

 not itself matter, but only a vortex in other matter ! 

 All agree that it is not an object of sense, and there 

 remains no conclusion but that it is nonsense ! ^ 



' See, for instance, the last new thing in this style — the Helm- 

 holtz molecule as improved upon by Sir William Thomson ; 

 it is described as follows : " A heavy mass connected by massless 

 springs with a massless enclosing shell ; or there may be several 

 shells enclosing each other connected by springs with a dense mass 

 in the centre (far more dense than the ether)." It is not, of course, 

 seriously maintained that this nonsensical creation exists — but that 

 if it did exist it would account for certain unexplained phenomena 

 in the disperson of light, etc. 



Later still (1920) we have the following delightful verdict 

 on the Structure of the Atom, given by Sir Ernest Rutherford — 

 and which I commend to all lovers of clear thinking : — 



"The Bakerian Lecture was delivered yesterday before the Royal 

 Society by Sir Ernest Rutherford, whose subject was ' The Nuclear 

 Construction of the Atom.' He said that during recent years 

 much attention had been paid to the nature and structure of atoms. 

 The atomic theory of matter had been definitely proved. The 

 mass of the individual atoms, and the number in any given weight 

 of matter, were now known with considerable accuracy. Not 

 only was matter known to be made up of atoms, but electricity 

 was also atomic in nature, and there was a definite unit of electrical 

 charge which could not further be subdivided. The negative 

 electron, which was a constituent of all atoms of matter, was 

 probably nothing more than an isolated unit of negative electricity, 

 and its small mass was electrical in origin. It had long been con- 

 sidered probable that the atom is an electrical structure, consisting 

 of positive and negative particles, held in equilibrium by electric 

 or magnetic forces. In recent years evidence had accumulated 

 that an atom consists of a positively charged nucleus surrounded at 

 a distance by a distribution of electrons to make it electrically 

 neutral." (From The Morning Post of June 4, 1920.) 



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