MIRACLES OF SCIENCE 



electrons, the question naturally arises, What lies 

 beyond? 



The answer is that, so far as present-clay science 

 knows, the electron is the last term of the series. 

 As the mind cannot grasp the conception of empty 

 space, physicists imagine an all-pervading ether, 

 permeating everywhere between the particles of 

 matter, and serving as the medium of communica- 

 tion whereby energy is transmitted from one particle 

 of matter to another throughout the universe. Light, 

 electricity, magnetism, radiant heat, are various 

 manifestations of energy transmitted, so it is be- 

 lieved, in the form of waves in the ether. 



This ether, as the physicist conceives it, has 

 neither weight nor discrete substance. It is the 

 unique all-pervading something that is neither en- 

 ergy nor matter. Its importance from a human stand- 

 point may be summarized in the statement that but 

 for the ether neither light nor heat would come to 

 us from the sun. 



When we reflect that the ether is supposed to pene- 

 trate everywhere between the particles of matter, 

 and that material substances, so far as experiment 

 goes, move through the ether without being in the 

 remotest degree obstructed, it will be obvious that 

 this all-pervading medium is an ever-present mys- 

 tery. It has been a puzzle to surmise how the par- 

 ticles of matter could produce waves in a medium 

 which seemed in no wise to obstruct the activities 

 of these particles. 



But now it appears that the link between the 

 structureless ether and matter with its atomic struc- 



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