HYPOTHESIS OF RADIANT MATTER 65 



theory of light, by assuming that the vibrations from which 

 light-waves originate are not produced by the atom as a 

 whole, but rather by the vibration of its positive or negative 

 electric charge conceived as a special entity, which we may 

 now personify, as it were, by the more recently coined name 

 " electron." The electron vibrates in an elliptical path which 

 is really the result of two circular oscillations in opposite 

 directions, and of differing amplitudes, but of identical period. 

 An alteration of the radii of these circles would merely alter 

 the shape of the ellipse; but if the periods of the two circular 

 motions were made to differ, no single resultant could appear, 

 for the two vibrations would produce waves of different length, 

 i.e., light rays of different refrangibility. Now, a magnetic 

 strain ought to exert some influence on an electron; if it 

 accelerated its dextrogyratory motion, it would retard its 

 laevo-gy ration, or vice versa. This is precisely what Zeeman 

 found when he examined the emission-spectra of vapors that 

 were placed in an electromagnetic field; single lines are broken 

 up into two or more finer lines, placed symmetrically with 

 regard to the position of the original one. Righi has general- 

 ized the reasoning so that it covers practically every relation 

 between the vibrating electron and the external magnetic 

 strain to which it is subjected, and reaches two conclusions: 

 First, the vibrating electron is electro-negative; second, the 

 ratio e/m, i.e., electric charge over mass, is about 1000 times 

 as great as the ratio between the electric charge and mass 

 of the hydrogen ion. Assuming, perhaps arbitrarily, that the 

 electric charge is the same, the mass of the electron is about 

 1/1000 that of the hydrogen ion; it can be no mere coinci- 

 dence that Thomson, Kaufmann, and others arrive at vir- 

 tually the same figure for the mass of the corpuscles which 

 carry the negative charges in ionized gases of whatever chemi- 

 cal constitution; in fact, everybody recognizes their identity. 



