MIRACLES OF SCIENCE 



matter as possessing a bird-cage kind of structure in 

 which the volume of the ether disturbed by the wires 

 when the structure is moved is infinitesimal in com- 

 parison with the volume enclosed by them. If we 

 do this no difficulty arises from the great density of 

 the ether. All we have to do is to increase the dis- 

 tance between the wires in proportion as we increase 

 the density of the ether." 



It undoubtedly puts a strain upon the ordinary im- 

 agination to conceive of the existence of this all-per- 

 vading medium which gives to our senses no evidence 

 of its existence. But the paradox becomes still more 

 startling when we turn to the newest theory as to the 

 exact nature of this etherial medium. This is the 

 theory elaborated by the late Professor Osborne 

 Reynolds, of Owens College, Manchester, England, 

 which has recently been called to the attention of the 

 American public through an interpretation given by 

 Professor John Mackenzie, of Minneapolis. Accord- 

 ing to this theory, which is supported by a mass of 

 mathematical reasoning which the average reader 

 must take on trust, the ether is composed of spheri- 

 cal granules of such infinitely small size that 700,- 

 000,000,000 of them placed in line could lie in the 

 trough of a single wave of violet light ; said wave of 

 light being about the one-seven-thousandth part of 

 an inch in length. These granules, according to Pro- 

 fessor Reynolds' theory, are the ultimate or 

 primordial atoms, perfectly spherical, and absolutely 

 rigid. They are almost infinitely small as compared 

 even with the size of the electron, which we have 

 seen to be almost infinitely small in comparison with 



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