ON THE PHYSICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 



197 



years, to the older and apparently abandoned views con- 

 tained in the writings of Wilhelm Weber, who dealt 

 with electric particles and their actions at a distance. 

 The chasm has been bridged over by such theories as 

 those of Lorentz and Larmor, and the missing link sup- 

 plied which prevented Gauss l from accepting that 

 theory when it was first communicated to him by its 

 author. 2 



1 See above, p. 67, note, where 

 Gauss's letter is quoted ; also Larmor, 

 loc. cit., and '^Ether and Matter,' pp. 

 22, 72 ; ' Philos. Transactions,' vol. 

 clxxxvi. (1895), p. 726 ; H. A. Lor- 

 entz, 'LaTheorie e"lectromagne"tique 

 de Maxwell,' 1892, p. 71 : " On voit 

 done que, dans la nouvelle forme, 

 la the"orie de Maxwell se rapproche 

 des anciennes id^es. On peut 

 meme, apres avoir e"tabli les for- 

 mules assez simples . . . regarder 

 ces formules comme exprimant une 

 loi fondamentale comparable a 

 celles de Weber et de Clausius. 

 Cependant, ces equations conser- 

 vent toujours 1'empreinte des 

 principes de Maxwell. " Further : 

 Lorentz, 'Versuch einer Theorie,' 

 &c. (1895), p. 8: "In general 

 there lies in the assumptions which 

 I make in a certain sense a return 

 to the older electric theory. The 

 kernel of Maxwell's views is hereby 

 not lost, but it cannot be denied 

 that with the assumption of ions 

 we are not very far removed from 

 the electrical particles with which 

 one operated formerly." Wiechert 

 (' Grundlagen der Electrodynamik,' 

 j>. 108) expresses himself similarly. 

 Lastly, I may refer to Prof. Kauff- 

 mann's very interesting Address 

 delivered at Hamburg, Septem- 

 ber 1891, translated in the 'Elec- 

 trician ' (November 1901, p. 95 

 sqq.) So we may perhaps say that 

 as Larmor attaches himself to the 

 traditions of the Dublin school, 



Lorentz and other continental 

 representatives of the atomic view 

 attach themselves to the school of 

 Gauss and Weber. In proof that 

 Weber's ideas never died out in the 

 Gottingen school, see Riecke's Eloge 

 of Weber, Gottingen, 1897, p. 27, 

 and a very significant remark hi the 

 verdict of the philosophical faculty 

 on Planck's Prize Essay ('Die Erhal- 

 tung der Energie,' 1887, p. 10). 



2 It would be unjust to dismiss 

 this subject, the overwhelming im- 

 portance of which becomes evident 

 if we glance at the many contri- 

 butions which fill the third volume 

 of the ' Rapports presented au Con- 

 gres International de Physique' 

 (Paris, 1900), without stating that 

 the atomic theory of electricity not 

 only furnishes the very keystone 

 which Gauss was looking for sev- 

 enty years ago, but that it has 

 also stood the test of experimental 

 verification in the observation by 

 Zeemann of the effect of magnetism 

 on the rays of light, an effect 

 which Faraday sought for in vain 

 about the time when Gauss was in 

 search of the keystone of electro- 

 dynamics. A very concise and 

 interesting account of Zeemann's 

 phenomenon will be found in M. 

 A. Cotton's monograph " Le Phe"n- 

 omene de Zeemann" ("Scientia," 

 Phys. Mathem., Paris, 1899) : 

 "Comment M. Zeemann a-t-il eu 

 ride"e d'dtudier avec un appareil 

 de polarisation la lumiere e'mise 



