CHAPTER VI 



OPTICS, CHEMISTRY, AND BIOLOGY 

 OF THE INFRA-WORLD 



1. IN order to arrive at some idea of the chemical 

 structure of the planets of the infra-world on the 

 basis of the general considerations advanced in 

 Chapter IV., we must carry the fundamental 

 analogies to their logical conclusion. We have 

 seen that in both our world and the infra-world 

 velocities are of the same order of magnitude, 

 while lengths are reduced in the ratio of 10 22 : 1. 

 We have also taken it for granted that the infra- 

 world has an atomic constitution an assumption 

 which must hold the field until some other con- 

 stitution will have been proved to be thinkable. 

 Given this atomic constitution, there will be an 

 infra-chemistry as well as an infra-astronomy. But 

 chemistry not only requires atoms, but electrons as 

 well. In fact, the familiar machinery of chemistry 

 (now practically resolved into electricity and thermo- 

 dynamics) must be there in all its essential features. 

 ether being unchanged, the motions of the 

 us will produce other-waves other- 

 wise light and, to complete the analogy, the 



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