582 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



earth, being a magnet, drags the ether with it. In what a complicated 

 turmoil the universe of ether would have to be if this conclusion were 

 applied to all bodies in space! This dilemma brings us to the one 

 theory which seems to clear up the most stirring mysteries of astro- 

 physical science. 



Reynolds's Theory of the Universe 

 The theory of the universe, which may perhaps be called the " dark 

 horse," is due to the late Professor Osborne Eeynolds, a thinker and 

 mathematican of no mean caliber. The theory is thoroughly discussed 

 and elaborated in his " Sub-mechanics of the Universe," which he very 

 appropriately calls an " inversion of ideas." Instead of considering 

 atoms as comparatively massive particles in a vacuum, a gas or a fluid, 

 he considers them as negative inequalities or comparative vacua im- 

 mersed in the perfectly rigid plenum which the phenomena of the uni- 

 verse require. The atoms in the ether might, therefore, be compared 

 mentally to the pockets or bubbles of liquid in a colloidal emulsion. 

 It is, of course, unthinkable that atoms be perfect vacua, that matter 

 be the expression of nothingness; what is meant is that the ether is 

 perfect fullness and that atoms are infinitesimal spheres of activity con- 

 taining less ether; mass being a function of activity, there is no con- 

 nection between quantity of ether and weight. It was with Reynolds's 

 theory in mind that the statement was made that matter and the forces 

 which make it known to our senses might possibly represent degrada- 

 tions of the inherent energy of the ether. The degradation of an ele- 

 ment means at once loss of electrons and loss of mass; hence, perhaps 

 increase of ether content or increase of inactive corpuscles, or even, 

 which would amount to the same thing, loss of energy to corpuscles 

 outside the atom. All this does not, however, solve the difficulty, it 

 merely inverts the ratios of mass; to complete the system, a theory of 

 the propagation or conduction of matter, in place of its transportation 

 or convection, is necessary. 



The Conduction of Matter 

 In the early days, astronomers found difficulty in ridding themselves 

 of the geocentric idea, and in the same way it must be a difficult thing 

 for the physicist to abandon the idea of positive matter; this conser- 

 vatism is the fly-wheel of progress. Much harder still should it be to 

 introduce the notion that matter is propagated like waves, like moving 

 pictures on the cinematograph screen which truly live and give rise 

 to emotions, although made up of nothing more tangible than lights 

 and shadows. What a reversal of mental habits to conceive that the 

 centers of force alone move and the component electrons change con- 

 tinually as the waves progress through the compact universe of ethe- 

 real corpuscles ! 



