74 TWO NEW WORLDS 



comparatively easy to account for a like distribu- 

 tion in any higher universe. Take the example of 

 the sun. Why has the sun a positive charge, and 

 the earth a negative charge ? Simply because the 

 sun emits a more powerful radiation, which has a 

 repulsive action on finely divided matter, such as 

 the droplets condensed about electrons. The sun, 

 therefore, is constantly expelling negative electricity 

 until its own charge suffices to maintain the equili- 

 brium between emission and absorption. 



We need only postulate that as we descend to 

 the infra-world, the radiation of the positive central 

 bodies decreases more slowly than the mass in order 

 to account for the much greater intensity of the 

 electric charges. In fact, we must suppose that the 

 " infra-light " emitted by the atoms is much more 

 powerful in comparison with their size, than the 

 light emitted by the sun. Tentatively, we might 

 suppose that the radiation varies, not as the mass, 

 but as the square root of the mass. 



This would give us, then, our positively-charged 

 atom or infra-star. Now there are reasons for 

 assuming that the hydrogen-atom is not only the 

 arbitrary unit of atomic weight, but a real and 

 ultimate physical unit of the same importance as 

 the electron. This is Prout's hypothesis, which has 

 not been strictly verified, but which may yet receive 

 a new interpretation when the mass of the electrons 

 bound up with the atoms is allowed for. In any 



