MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER. 231 



by the electron. A uui(^netie iiekl resolves this motion into other 

 component motions — some slower, others (juicker — and thus causes a 

 single line to split into others of g-reater and less refrangibilit}" than 

 the parent line. 



In 1879, in a lecture I delivered before the British Association " at 

 Sheffield, it fell to my lot to revive "radiant matter."" I advanced the 

 theory that in the phenomena of the vacuum tube at high exhaustions 

 the particles constituting the cathode stream are not solid, nor liquid, 

 nor gaseous, do not consist of atoms propelled through the tube and 

 causing luminous, mechanic, or electric phenomena where they strike, 

 "but that they consist of something nuich smaller than the atom — 

 fragments of matter, ultra-atomic corpuscles, minute things, very 

 much smaller, very much lighter than atoms — things which appear to 

 bo the foundation stones of which atoms are composed."'^ 



1 further demonstrated that the physical properties of radiant matter 

 arc common to all matter at this low density — " Whether the gas origi- 

 nally undei" experiment be hydrogen, carbon dioxide, or atmospheric 

 air, the phenomena of phosphorescence, shadows, magnetic deflection, 

 etc., are identical." Here are my words, written nearly a (juarter of 

 a centur}" ago: "We have actually touched the border land where 

 matter and force seem to merge into one another'" — the shadowy realm 

 between the known and unknown. I venture to think that the greatest 

 scientific problems of the future will find their solution in this t)order 

 land, and even beyond; here, it seems to me, lie ultimate realities, 

 sul)tlc, far-reachinc^, wonderful." 



It was not till 1881 that J. J. Thomson established the basis of the 

 electro-dynamic theory. In a very remarkable memoir in the Philo- 

 sophical Magazine he explained the phosphorescence of glass under 

 the influence of the cathode stream by the nearly abrupt changes in 

 the magnetic tield arising from the sudden stoppage of the cathode 

 particles. 



The now generally accepted view that our chemical elements have 

 been formed from one primordial substance was advocated in 1888 by 

 me when president of the Chemical Society,'^ in connection with a 

 theory of the genesis of the elements. I spoke of "an infinite num- 

 ber of immeasurabh' small ultimate — or, rather, ultimatissimate — 

 particles gradually accreting out of the formless mist, and moving 

 with inconceivable velocity in all directions." 



Pondering on some of the properties of the rare elements, I strove 

 to show that the elementary atoms themselves might not be the same 



"British Association Reports, SliefHcld meeting, 1879. Chemical News, Vol. XL, 

 p. id. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, 1S79, I't. 1, p. .W,"). Proc. Roy. Soc, 1880, No. 205, 

 p. W.). 



''SirO. Lodge, Nature, Vol. LXVli, [>. 451. 



<■ "Matter is Init a ininlc (,f motion" ( Proe. Roy. Soc., No. 205, p. 472). 



<^ President's address to ('hem. Sue., March 28, 1888. 



SM iyu3 16 



