THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD 129 



Such a revolution as has occurred in the ideas of 

 the ether requires a like one in our ideas of matter. 

 The most notable effort in theoretical physics, at the 

 present time, is the hypothesis that the ultimate ele- 

 ment of matter is not a material atom, a sort of micro- 

 cosm of sensible matter, but a free electrical charge, 

 considered to be an entity for the purpose; added to 

 this are the dependent ideas that inertia and all other 

 properties of matter are attributes of electricity. This 

 hypothesis can mean nothing else than that the Lu- 

 cretian atom, the centers of force of Boscovich, the 

 vortices of Kelvin, and all the atomic models (made 

 of weights and springs and strings), have failed and 

 become useless as aids to the imagination. 



Sir J. Larmor defines this new atom as a protion, 

 " in whole or in part a nucleus of intrinsic strain in 

 the ether, a place at which the continuity of the me- 

 dium has been broken and cemented together again (to 

 use a crude but effective image) without accurately 

 fitting the parts, so that there is a residual strain all 

 round the place." This strain is not of the character 

 of mechanical elasticity, since the " ultimate element of 

 material constitution is taken to be an electric charge 

 or nucleus of permanent ethereal strain instead of a 

 vortex ring." Sir J. J. Thomson pictures the atoms of 

 the various chemical elements as nuclei of free positive 

 electricity holding in electrical equilibrium free nega- 

 tive charges, placed in various geometrical designs. 



