CH. vi.] NEGATIVE CARRIERS 69 



the square root of 2fh ; that is to say, it is 10 8 centi- 

 metres per second for a positive carrier, and 3 x 10 9 

 centimetres per second for a negative carrier ; and 

 these are approximately the orders of magnitude 

 actually observed. 



Thus the hypothesis becomes more and more j ustified 

 that units of positive charge are always associated 

 with atoms, in operations which we can control, 

 and are consequently always complete ions; while 

 the units of negative charge appear in some cases 

 with a separate existence, perhaps carrying with 

 them part of the atom, in which case they might be 

 called corpuscles, having a material nucleus ; perhaps 

 pure disembodied electricity, whatever that may 

 be an electrical charge detached from matter, a 

 mere complexity in the ether, in which case they 

 would correspond with those hypothetical entities 

 familiar in theoretical and mathematical treatment as 

 "electrons." 



