HELMHOLTZ IN BERLIN 



electro-magnetic phenomena. Even this idea as to 

 ether being the basis of matter seems to have lurked 

 in the all-embracing mind of Newton, for he says : 

 'Thus, perhaps, may all things be originated from 

 aether.' l In later years, Helmholtz accepted Lord 

 Kelvin's idea and contributed remarkable mathematical 

 papers in its support. The element, according to this 

 conception, is neither a solid atom, nor a mass of 

 atoms, but a whirl in a fluid ether. The molecules 

 of a particular element have one invariable and 

 unchangeable mass ; when the substance is incan- 

 descent, its molecules are vibrating, and emit the 

 same kind of light, being tuned, as it were, to 

 definite pitches. As Levering said : ' The music of 

 the spheres has left the heavens and condescended to 

 . rhythmic molecules. There is no birth or death or 

 variation of species. If other masses than the precise 

 ones which represent the elements have been elimin- 

 ated, where, asks Clerk Maxwell, have they gone ? 

 The spectroscope does not show them in the stars or 

 nebulae. The hydrogen and sodium of the remotest 

 space is in unison with the hydrogen and sodium or 

 the earth.' 2 Finally, the theory of vortex motions 

 has made it possible to understand in some measure 

 the transmission of magneto-electric effects through an 

 intervening medium, and it has also helped to dispel 



1 Letter to the Secretary of the Royal Society, Henry Oldenburg, 

 Jan. 1676. (Hist, of Royal Society, by T. Birch, vol. iii., p. 250). 



- Joseph Levering. Address to American Association for Advancement 

 of Science. Hartford, Aug. 14, 1874. 

 I 99 



