70 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



studying the behaviour of the flying particles in 

 the vacuum, he came to the conclusion that they 

 had properties not possessed by ordinary matter. 

 Here are his words : " In these highly exhausted 

 vessels, the molecules of the gaseous residue are 

 able to dart across the tube with comparatively 

 few collisions, and, radiating from the pole with 

 enormous velocity, they assume properties so 

 novel and so characteristic as to entirely justify 

 the application of the term borrowed from Faraday, 

 that of Radiant Matter. . . ." " In studying this 

 Fourth state of Matter, we seem at length to have 

 within our grasp, and obedient to our control, the 

 little indivisible particles which with good warrant 

 are supposed to constitute the physical basis of 

 the universe. We have seen that in some of its 

 properties Radiant Matter is as material as this 

 table, whilst in other properties it almost assumes 

 the character of Radiant Energy. We have 

 actually touched the borderland where Matter and 

 Force seem to merge into one another, the shadowy 

 realm between the known and the unknown, which 

 for me has always had peculiar temptations." 



Lenard, J. J. Thomson, and others made a 

 special study of the flying particles, and their 

 special characteristics are now well established. 

 They are deflected in a magnetic field ; they can 

 penetrate thin plates of metal ; they can affect 



