404 Structure of the Universe 



Professor Osborne Reynolds' great reputation and the twenty years 

 he has labored at this research will ensure for it a careful considera- 

 tion from those competent to judge of its merits." 



Professor J. D. Everett, at the end of an article on "Normal Pil- 

 ing" published in the Philosophical Magazine, says: "I have not made 

 any attempt to verify the elaborate statistical calculations with which 

 Professor Reynolds' paper abounds. My present purpose is not con- 

 troversy but explanation, and the style of the paper is so exceedingly 

 technical that a good deal of explanation seems to be necessary before 

 an intelligent controversy can begin. I have chiefly aimed at an 

 explanation of the geometrical conditions which underlie the system 

 supposed, thereby clearing the way for more searching criticism, and 

 helping towards the working out of the very fruitful suggestions 

 which the theory contains," 



Professor G. H. Bryan, in a review of Reynolds' work in "Nature" 

 concludes by saying: "It may safely be described as one of the most 

 remarkable attempts Vi2t have been made in recent years to formu- 

 late p. dynamical system of accounting for all the physical phenomena 

 at present known. A theory such as is here set forth may not improb- 

 ably play the same part in modern science that was assumed by the 

 atomic theory and the kinetic theory of gases in the science of the 

 time when these theories were propounded. It may be confidently 

 anticipated that Professor Osborne Reynolds' granular medium will 

 play an important part in the physics of the future." 



Influence on Philosophy. 



What will be the influence of Reynolds' theory on philosophy? 

 So far as this is concerned I think it is destined to play a very im- 

 portant part in philosophy. Previous systems of philosophy have 

 been very ignorant as to the structure of the universe. They have 

 been composed mostly of metaphysical guesswork. Philosophy re- 

 quires the aid of positive science to explain the fundamental arrange- 

 ment of the universe; and hitherto no medium has ever been sug- 

 gested which would cause a statistical force of attraction between two 

 bodies at a dinstance. The explanation of gravitation as enunciated 

 by Reynolds carries with it probably the greatest scientific conception 

 that has ever entered the mind of man, and any philosophy of the 

 future which has any pretentions to arrive at the truth must take 

 Reynolds' theory into consideration. Notwithstanding all the great 

 systems of philosophy which have been spun from the brain of man 

 throughout the ages, not one of them has been able to explain the 

 simplest and most familiar phenomenon, viz., the fall of a stone to the 

 ground. Ever since man has been upon the earth he has seen the 

 l)henomena caused by gravitation. He has seen the avalanche hurt- 

 ling down the mountain side, the rivers rolling onward to the sea, and 

 •countless other phenomena caused by gravity which happened daily 

 "before his eyes. To the astronomer every movement of the heavenly 

 ^bodies is caused by gravity; the geologist has constantly before his 

 ■eyes evidences of its action in the formation of the earth, and the 

 -physiologist sees its action in the structure of our bodies; in short, 

 •.there is not a single department of nature where gravity has not 



