A NEW MICROCOSM II 



or substantially the same as the ratio of the dia- 

 meters. Hence in the infra-world space and time are 

 reduced in the same proportion. 



It is this curious circumstance which justifies the 

 expression " infra- world." It shows that the world 

 in which an electron is equivalent to the earth is 

 a real microcosm, a " visible universe" on an almost 

 inconceivably small scale, but still a universe where 

 conditions do greatly resemble our own. 



Our visible universe consists of stars strewn ir- 

 regularly through space. As we descend in the 

 scale of dimensions, we first enter the region of 

 micro-organisms, then the region of molecular 

 aggregates, and, lastly, the region of atoms and 

 electrons, and it is only at the last stage that we find 

 any conditions comparable with those of our world. 



When, with our own progressive diminution, the 



11 things appear larger and larger, when finally 



the electron comes to resemble the earth, and we 



take our stand on it as "infra-men" 10 22 times 



smaller than our present size, we enter this mys- 



>us infra-world, and begin to appreciate its real 



oture. Our electron turns out to be a hard 



sphere, but sufficiently varied in its surface (most 



likely) to present what wo used to call landscape 



eftects. This means but a slight irregularity of the 



surface, so slight as to be impossible to trace by 



terrestrial measurements. 



We may have entered the infra-world in the full 



