] 6 Origin of the Chemical Elements 



motion — that is, a direction parallel to the movement of the charged 

 sphere; and (3) there is the direction at right angles to these two, this 

 last being the direction of the magnetic lines of force — the direc- 

 tion of the magnetic field." 



As we cannot see the construction of this inner core and outer 

 shell of the atom, we will examine the structure of protoplasm, 

 the organic cell substance. 



The biologist says, " Protoplasm is the physical basis of life, and 

 is found identical in plant and animal cells. We know a great deal 

 about this peculiar substance, or rather combination of substances, 

 but there is still a great deal more that we do not know. There 

 have been many opinions as to the structure of this living matter — 

 that it is fibrilla, that it is like a network, that it is a mass of foam. 

 The microscope does not tell us all that we should like to know — 

 and it tells us one thing at one time, and other things at other 

 times. It is quite possible that the " structure " of protoplasm is dif- 

 ferent in different organisms, or that it is different in different parts 

 of the same organisms, or that it is different within the same cell 

 under dfferent conditions." 



Protoplasm as " fibrilla " in structure answers the description 

 of " lines of tension between the two bodies " described by Lodge 

 as constituting the phenomena of electricity. Positive electricity 

 starts out in all directions in straight lines (Plate 2, fig. i,) and 

 when the structure of protoplasm became positively electrified, the 

 structure would be fibrilla." When the lines of force at right 

 angles to the lines extending from one body to that of the other 

 (as an electrostatic field with a tension along the lines and pressure 

 at right angles) became in government, the structure would be a 

 " network," and when the structure became negatively charged, or 

 equal in parts throughout the mass, it would be a structure, as " sea- 

 foam." These three conditions are all displayed in the different 

 kinds of bacteria cells in the construction of colonies. There are 

 the cells forming in straight lines; formfng a network; and the 

 colony, looking as though made up of grains of sand. 



We have already shoAvn how the straight positive lines are pro- 

 ductive of magnetic lines which form circles. When these circles 

 are forced to decompose, straight lines would form. As these 

 lines are at right angles to those of the electrostatic field, a net- 

 work or crossed lines would be formed. 



We picture (Plate i, fig. 5,) a bacterial growth where the straight 

 lines decompose into, first, rods, and then into spherical groups. 



What explanation do we find in the electrical theory of the con- 

 stitution of matter for this right to trace the organic cell to the 

 primal atom, and this atom through the constitution of the living 

 cell? How is it possible that there are these differences in the 

 structure of protoplasm, and a sameness of lines in different direc- 

 tions, as a result of electric energies? In the first place, a photo- 

 graph of negatively charged dust particles (Plate 2, fig. 5,) shows 

 individual spherical particles. The photograph of the positively 



