524 DE. A. N. WHITEHEAD ON 



The Corpuscles. We may distinguish five types of points. A point of Type (1) 

 contains no interpoints, and consists only of its nonsecant part (of. *20'231). A point 

 of Type (2) contains a single interpoint and no nonsecant part. Such a point is a 

 single interpoint. A point of Type (3) contains a single interpoint together with a 

 nonsecant part. A point of Type (4) contains many interpoints with no nonsecant 

 part. A point of Type (5) contains many interpoints together with a nonsecant point. 



We seem to be precluded from considering the " particles" to be stable points by 

 the same difficulty as to the resulting permanence of collinearity, which was explained 

 in considering the corpuscles of Concept IV. It is evident that at this stage many 

 subdivisions of Concept V. are possible, in respect to the ideas which may be formed 

 of the nature of the corpuscle. The following sketch of a possible development is 

 o-iven because of its superior simplicity, and also because of a certain consonance 

 which it possesses with some modern physical ideas. 



It is evident that volumes, in which, in some sense, there is an excess or a defect of 

 interpoints, can be conceived as being charged with one or other of the two sorts of 

 electricity. This idea is taken as the basis of the following brief outline of a possible 

 development of the concept. Let the interpoints be identified with negative 

 electricity and the nonsecant parts of points with positive electricity. A point of 

 type (1) is a negative electron; a point of type (2) is a positive electron. The 

 persistence of existence of an isolated electron of either type is to be defined by 

 persistence of type and continuity of motion. If the electron is not isolated, consider, 

 for example, a volume in which electrons of type (2) either compose all the points, or, 

 at least, are everywhere dense. Then the persistence of such a collection of electrons 

 must be considered as a whole, and is defined, as in the simpler case, by persistence 

 of type and continuity of motion. 



Three methods of procedure now suggest themselves, either (Case I.) to assume 

 that the electrons consist of single points, so that a corpuscle is a volume containing 

 a large finite number of points of type (2), and a small finite number of points of 

 type (l), or (Case II.) to assume that a corpuscle is a volume in which points of 

 type (2) are (at least) everywhere dense, and which contains a finite number of points 

 of type (1), or (Case III.) to assume that an electron of either type is essentially a 

 volume (possibly with internal boundaries) in which points of the appropriate type 

 are at least everywhere dense. In Case III. a corpuscle will be a relatively large 

 electron of type (2) containing within it a finite number of relatively small electrons 

 of type (1). Case III. has the merit, such as it is, of making the " inverse square" 

 law of electricity appear somewhat natural. The field of force " at a point" produced 

 by an electron may be conceived as proportional to the number of objective reals 

 shared in common by the point and the " electric points" in the electron, and also to 

 the number of these electric points. The number of electric points would be measured 

 by the mass of the electron, the number of objective reals by the solid angle subtended 

 at the point by the electron. 



