ON THE PHYSICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 



10' 



years, to the older and apparently abandoned views con- 

 tained in the writings of Wilhelni Weber, who dealt 

 with electric particles and tlieir jictions at a distance. 

 The chasm has been bridged over by such theories as 

 those of Lorentz and Larmor, and tlie missing link sup- 

 plied which prevented Gauss ^ from accepting that 

 theory when it was first comnninieated to him by its 

 autlior." 



' See above, p. 67, note, where 

 Gauss's letter isquoted ; also Laniior, 

 loc. cit., and '.-Ether and Matter,' pp. 

 22, 72 ; ' Philos. Transactions,' vol. 

 clxxx\-i. (1895), p. 726 ; H. A. Lor- 

 entz, ' La Theorie ^lectromagndtique 

 de Maxwell,' 1892, p. 71 : "On voit 

 done (^ue, dans la nouvelle forme, 

 la theorie de Maxwell se rapproche 

 des anciennes idees. On pent 

 meme, apr^s avoir etabli les for- 

 niules assez simples . . . regarder 

 ces formules comme exprimant une 

 loi fondamentale comparable ii 

 celles de Weber et de Clausius. 

 Cependant, ces equations conser- 

 vent toujours I'empreinte des 

 principes de Maxwell." Further: 

 Lorentz, 'Versuch einer Theorie,' 

 &c. (189.0), p. S : " In general 

 there lies in the assumptions which 

 1 make in a certain sense a return 

 to the older electric theory. The 

 kernel of Maxwell's vnews is hereby 

 not lost, Vjut it cannot be denied 

 that with the assumption of ions 

 we are not very far removed from 

 the electrical particles with which 

 one operated formerly." W'iechert 

 (' Orundlagen der Electrodynamik," 

 p. 108) expresses himself siniilarly. 

 Lastly, I may refer to Prof. Kauff- 

 mann's very interesting Address 

 delivered at Hamburg, Septem- 

 ber 1891, translated in the 'Elec- 

 trician' (November 1901, p. 95 

 sqq.) So we may perhaps say that 

 as Larmor attaclies himself to the 

 traditions of the Dublin school, 



Lorentz and other continental 

 representatives of the atomic view 

 attach themselves to the school of 

 Gauss and Weber. In pro<jf that 

 Weber's ideas never died out in the 

 Gottingen .school, see Riecke's Kloge 

 of Weber, Gottingen, 1897, p. 27, 

 and a very significant remark in the 

 verdict of the philo30i)hical faculty 

 on Planck's Prize Essay ('Die Erhal- 

 tung der Energie,' 1887, p. 10). 



" It would be unjust to dismiss 

 this subject, the overwhelming im- 

 portance of which becomes evident 

 if we glance at the many contri- 

 butions which fill the third volume 

 of the ' Rapports presentcs au Con- 

 grcs International de Physique' 

 (Paris, 1900), without stilting that 

 the atomic theory of electricity nut 

 only furnishes the very keystone 

 which Gauss wa.s looking for sev- 

 enty years ago, but that it has 

 also stood the test of experimental 

 verification in the observation by 

 Zeemann of the effect of magnetism 

 on the rays of light, an effect 

 which Faraday souglit for in vain 

 about the time when Gauss was in 

 search of the keysUjne of electro- 

 dynamics. A very concise and 

 interestitig account of Zeonmnn's 

 ])hen(imenon will be founil in M. 

 A. Cotton's monograj)!! " Le Phon- 

 omcne de Zeemann" ("' Scientia,'' 

 Phys. Mathem., Paris, 1899): 

 "Comment M. Zeemann a-t-il eu 

 I'iilde d'etudier avec un appareil 

 de polarisation la lumi{>re t'misc 



