MATTER 103 



can a vortex formed in a fluid disappear into this 

 fluid by causing vibrations in it ? 



" Stated in this form, the solution of the problem 

 presents no serious difficulties. It can be easily- 

 seen, in fact, how a vortex generated at the expense 

 of a liquid can, when its equilibrium is disturbed, 

 vanish by radiating away the energy it contains 

 under the form of vibrations of the medium in 

 which it is plunged. In this way, for example, a 

 waterspout formed by a whirl of liquid loses its 

 individuality and disappears in the ocean. 



" It is, no doubt, the same with the vibrations 

 of the ether. They represent the last stage of the 

 dematerialisation of matter, the one preceding its 

 final disappearance. After these ephemeral vibra- 

 tions, the ether returns to its repose and matter has 

 definitely disappeared. It has returned to the 

 primitive ether from which hundreds and milHons 

 of ages and forces unknown to us caused it to 

 emerge, as it emerged in the far-off^ ages when the 

 first traces of our universe were outlined on 

 chaos." 



The great mathematician Larmor has reached 

 the same conclusion by mathematical processes, 

 and declares that the atom is a whirl in the ether 

 rotating with tremendous velocity. " The material 

 molecule," he writes, " is entirely formed of ether, 

 and of nothing else." 



