ELECTRONS 6s 



matter which exists in the world is everywhere one 

 and the same " — " materia itaque in toto universo 

 una et eadem existit." " I do not believe," 

 affirmed Galileo, " that anything else is required 

 than magnitudes, shapes, quantities, and slow move- 

 ments or swift to produce in us tastes, smells, 

 sounds." Huyghens supposed bodies formed of 

 homogeneous matter in which no qualities were dis- 

 tinguished, but only different magnitudes, shapes, 

 and movements. 



Perhaps the most prescient of all was the great 

 chemist Faraday, who, in 1 8 1 6, when only twenty- 

 four years old, wrote as follows : " I may now 

 notice a curious progression in physical properties 

 accompanying changes of form, and which is perhaps 

 sufficient to induce in the inventive and sanguine 

 philosopher a considerable degree of belief in the 

 association of the radiant form with the others in 

 the set of changes I have mentioned. As we 

 ascend from the solid to the fluid and gaseous 

 state, physical properties diminish in number and 

 variety, each state losing some of those which 

 belonged to the preceding state. When solids are 

 converted into fluids, all the variations of hardness 

 and softness are necessarily lost. Crystalline and 

 other shapes are destroyed. Opacity and colour 

 frequently give way to a colourless transparency, 

 and a general mobility of particles is conferred. 



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