CHAPTEK XXL 



VALIDITY OF OLD VIEWS OF ELECTRICAL 

 PHENOMENA. 



Now that the doctrine of electricity (at least of 

 negative electricity) as located in small charges or 

 charged bodies is definitely accepted, and now that a 

 current can be treated as the locomotion of actual 

 electricity, it may seem as if some doubt were thrown 

 upon the doctrine, which a little time ago was spoken 

 of as a " modern view," that the energy of an electric 

 current resides in the space round a conductor. 

 There is no inconsistency, however. The whole of the 

 fields of an electron are outside itself; it is in its 

 fields that its energy resides, and it is in the space 

 round it that energy is conveyed when it moves ; for 

 the ether in that space is subject to the co-existence 

 of an electric and a magnetic field. So, also, its 

 inertia resides in space round it, for it is accounted 

 for by the reaction experienced when its magnetic field 

 changes, that is, when its motion, is accelerated. 



In dealing with the inertia of matter it is commonly 

 supposed that the inertia resides in the matter itself : 

 whereas electrical inertia is known to reside in the 

 space round the nucleus. Yet we have been emphasis- 

 ing and supporting the view that material inertia and 

 electrical inertia are essentially one and the same. 



