Continuity 67 



and binding medium without which, if 

 matter could exist at all, it could only 

 exist as chaotic and isolated fragments: 

 and it is the universal medium of com- 

 munication between worlds and between 

 particles. And yet it is possible for 

 people to deny its existence, because it is 

 unrelated to any of our senses, except 

 sight, and to that only in an indirect and 

 not easily recognised fashion. 



To illustrate the thorough way in 

 which we may be unable to detect what 

 is around us unless it has some link or 

 bond which enables it to make appeal, 

 let me make another quotation from Sir 

 J. J. Thomson's Address at Winnipeg in 

 1909. He is leading up to the fact that 

 even single atoms, provided they are 

 fully electrified with the proper atomic 

 charge, can be detected by certain deli- 

 cate instruments their field of force 

 bringing them within our ken whereas a 

 whole crowd of unelectrified ones would 

 escape observation. 



The smallest quantity of unelectrified matter 

 ever detected is probably that of neon, one of 



