ii The Substance of Nature 29 



may be broken up and rearranged when the proper tools 

 are found. 



48. Structure of Matter. Any element or compound 

 appears perfectly homogeneous under the most powerful 

 microscope, but the investigations of scientific men prove 

 that there is a limit to homogeneity. The smallest particles 

 of which matter consists are far too minute ever to become 

 visible the smallest visible speck is calculated to contain 

 more than 50,000,000 of them. By careful experi- 

 ments and ingenious reasoning Sir William Thomson has 

 shown that matter is made up of particles so small that 

 if a little cube I inch in the side were magnified until it 

 was 8000 miles in the side, neighbouring particles would be 

 i inch apart ; in other words, there are about 500,000,000 

 particles in the length of an inch. The study of chemistry 

 has shown that each particle must, in almost every case, 

 consist of at least two, but probably many, parts called 

 atoms which cannot exist separately but always form groups. 

 The atoms of every element are different from those of every 

 other element ; but each atom of any element is exactly 

 like all the other atoms of that element. Sir John Herschel 

 compared the immense numbers of exactly similar atoms of 

 hydrogen or of iron or of oxygen that are found on the 

 Earth, in the Sun, and in the remotest regions of space, 

 to manufactured articles all turned out by the same process 

 and all trimmed to exactly the same size and pattern. Sir 

 William Thomson has shown that it is possible to explain 

 the structure of matter as made up of myriads of minute 

 vortex rings or whirlpools set up in a perfect fluid which 

 fills all space. 



BOOKS OF REFERENCE 



P. G. Tait, Properties of Matter. A. and C. Black. 

 H. E. Roscoe, Lessons in Elementary Chemistry. Macmillan 

 and Co. 



