MATTER 97 



situation thus : " By comparison of theory with 

 experiment, it was found that the mass of the 

 electron was purely electrical in origin, and that 

 there was no necessity to assume that the charge 

 was distributed over a material nucleus. We thus 

 arrive at the remarkable conclusion that the particles 

 of the cathode stream {i.e. the negative corpuscles 

 or electrons) and the /3 particles of radium are 

 not matter at all in the ordinary sense, but dis- 

 embodied electrical charges, whose motion confers 

 on them the properties of ordinary mass." 



" It is probable," writes Whetham, " that the 

 whole of the observed mass of the corpuscle is in 

 reality an effect due to the electro-magnetic inertia 

 of its electric charge. Representing the atoms of 

 ordinary matter as made up of corpuscles, and 

 identifying the corpuscles with electrons, or isolated 

 electric charge units, it becomes possible to explain 

 their mass by the electro-magnetic properties of a 

 moving charge." 



This may be considered equivalent to the 

 assertion that all mass is electrical in essence ; and 

 Professor R. K. Duncan, in his book The New 

 Knowledge^ asserts : " we are therefore entitled to 

 believe, if we like, that the whole mass of the 

 corpuscle arises from its electric charge. But the 

 corpuscle we deem to be the constituent of an 

 atom is itself the constituent of a molecule, and a 



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