276 INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. 



According- to the purtisaii.s of the exclusiveh' electric structure of 

 matter, the atom is entirely made up of a certain number of electric 

 vortices. Around a small num))er of positive electrons there whirl, 

 with dizz}^ velocit3% the negative electrons to the number of a thou- 

 sand, and often more. 



Taken together the}' form an atom, which is thus a sort of solar S3"s- 

 tem in miniature. "The material atom," says Larmor, "is composed 

 of electrons, and of nothing else." 



These electrons, hy neutralizing each other, render the atom elec- 

 tricalh' neutral. The lattiu- ]>ec()mes positive or negative only when 

 it is deprived of electrons of corresponding contrary signs, as is done 

 in electrolysis. All chemical reactions are due to losses or gains in 

 electrons. 



It will ))e seen that the old atom of the chemists, formerly considered 

 so simple, is really remai'kabiy complex. It is a veritable siderial 

 system, comprising a sun and planets that gravitate about it. From 

 the architecture of this system are derived the properties of the var- 

 ious atoms, but all have the same fundamental elements. 



Section 7. — Ether tlte fnudnnimtdl xuhsfuncc of (ifomx. 



The greater part of the phenomena studied ])y ph^'sics — light, heat, 

 radiant electricit}', etc. — are considered as produced b}' vibrations of 

 the ether. Gravitation, from which we derive a knowledge of celestial 

 mechanics and the course of the stars, seems to l)e still another of its 

 manifestations. The theoretical speculations on the constitution of 

 atoms seem also to demand the ether for a basis. 



The necessity for the ether has long been realized, because no phe- 

 nomenon would l)e conceiva))le without the existence of this medium. 

 Without it there would probably lie neither weight, nor light, iTor 

 electricity, nor. heat — in a word, nothing of that with which we are 

 accpiainted. The universe would be silent and dead, or would manifest 

 itself in a form utterly inconceivable. If we could construct a cham- 

 ber of glass from which the ether was entirely removed, neither heat 

 nor light could traverse it. It would be absolutely ])lack, and probabl}' 

 graA'itation would cease to act upon bodies placed within it. Thej'^ 

 would then lose all their weight. 



Yet, as soon as we attempt to detine the properties of the ether, 

 enormous difficulties appear. They arise, especially, from the fact 

 that, being unable to connect it with anvthing known, terms of com- 

 parison. and consequently of definition, fail entirely. 



When the books on physics say, in a few lines, that the ether is an 

 imponderable medium that tills the universe, the first idea that comes 

 into the mind represents it as a kind of gas sufficiently rarefied to be 

 imponderal)le by the means at ourdisposal. It is not difficult to imag- 

 ine such a gas, A. Miiller has calculated that if we should difi'use 



