of Blectrlcttg. 41 



few of the qualities of ordinary matter. It is 

 continuous and has no molecular structure. It 

 offers no perceptible resistance, and the closest- 

 grained substances of ordinary matter are 

 more open to the ether than a coarse sieve is 

 to the finest flour. It fills all space, and, like 

 eternity, it has no limits. Some physicists 

 suppose and there is much plausibility in the 

 supposition that the ether is the one sub- 

 stance out of which all forms of matter come. 

 Tli at the atoms of matter are vortices or little 

 whirlpools in the ether; and that rigidity and 

 other qualities of matter all arise in the ether 

 from different degrees or kinds of motion. 



Electricity is not a fluid, or any form of ma- 

 terial substance, but a form of energy. Energy 

 is expressed in different ways, and, while as 

 energy it is one and the same, we call it by 

 different names as heat energy, chemical 

 energy, electrical energy, and so on. They will 

 all do work, and in that respect are alike. One 

 difficulty in explaining electrical phenomena is 

 the nomenclature that the science is loaded 

 down with. All the old names were adopted 

 when electricity was regarded as a fluid, hence 

 tin- word " current." It is spoken of as "flow- 

 ing " when it does not flow any more than light 

 flows. 



If a man wants to writo a treatise on elec- 

 tricity outsidt- of tin- IIMTC phenomena and 

 applications and wants to make a lar^e book 



