THE SEARCH FOR PRIMAL MATTER 



Suppose that by any force say that of an elec- 

 tric charge or impact against some solid body 

 these corpuscles are split off, and either get entan- 

 gled with other aggregates of matter or go shoot- 

 ing through space at an almost incredible speed ; 

 we have then the phenomena of the cathode rays. 



But the most remarkable fact is their sameness. 

 It would seem as if the variety and chemical differ- 

 ences of the atoms were due simply to the number, 

 the motions, and positions of bits of primal matter, 

 identical among themselves. In this way we should 

 have an explanation of chemical phenomena of 

 something the same character as that which is used 

 to explain the otherwise inexplicable composition 

 of organic substances. As we now have a stereo- 

 chemistry, a chemistry of the position of atoms in 

 space, so we should have some day, perhaps, a 

 stereo-physics, a science of the grouping of the cor- 

 puscles within the atom. 



It is interesting to note that already the young 

 Frenchman who demonstrated the electric charge 

 of the corpuscles, M. Perrin, has calculated that 

 the time of revolution of the corpuscles in certain 

 substances like aluminum, about a suppositional 

 atomic centre, would give very nearly the identical 

 wave-length that is shown by these substances 

 when their light is sent through a prism and dis- 

 pluvcfl upon the screen of the spectrum. It is in 

 " 161 



