270 INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. 



quantity of electricit}' that the atom can pi-oduce. only a part of 

 which, very proba])ly, appeals in ordinary electrolysis. This is not 

 an hj^pothesis, since, in the radio-acti\ity manifested by sim])le bodies, 

 the quantity of electricit}" liberated for a given weight of matter is 

 considerably larger than in electrolysis. 



In all the ordinary operations to which we submit matter — fusion, 

 vaporization, etc., and in all chemical operations — we communicate to 

 it an additional amount of energ}', which apparently augments the 

 movements of rotation or vi])ration of the atoms, ]>ut we do not touch 

 their structure, and that is wh}^ matter so easily resumes its primitive 

 state, as we see it do, for example, when we allow a liquefied body to 

 cool. 



Section h.-^The trdnsJtlon hetween the 'ponderahle and the impon- 



derahle. 



Current idem as to the dht'inctlon het'a-'een, tJie pondei'ahle and the im- 

 p&nderable. — Science formerly classitied the various phenomena of 

 nature ])y placing them in clearly separated groups, between which 

 there appeared to })e no connection. These distinctions existed in all 

 branches of knowledge. 



The discovery of the laws of evolution occasioned the disappearance 

 from the natural sciences of the divisions that had previously seemed 

 insuperable barriers, and from the protoplasm of primitive creatures 

 up to man the chain is to-day almost uninterrupted. Missing links 

 are restored every day, and we now see how changes have been 

 effected in the course of time from the most simple to the most com- 

 plex beings. 



Physics has followed a similar road, but all the chasms that separate 

 its different branches have not yet been spanned. It has slowly got 

 rid of the fluids that formerly embarrassed it. It has discovered the 

 relations between the different forces and now admits that they all are 

 but varied manifestations of something indestructible— energy. Thus 

 it has established the serial permanence of phenomena, has shown the 

 existence of continuit}^ where only discontinuity formerly appeared. 

 The law of the conservation of energy is in reality only a simple state- 

 ment of this continuity. In order to establish continuity throughout, 

 physics has still an enormous step to take. It still maintains that 

 there is a deep gulf between the ponderable and the imponderable; 

 that energy and matter are sharply separated, matter and ether no 

 less so. 



In the present state of scientific thought two ideas are current that 

 should be considered apart; first, matter can not itself create energy; 

 second, the imponderable ether is entirely distinct from ponderable 

 matter — that is to say, it has no analogy with it. 



