October 11, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



483 



covered consisted wholly of electric charges 

 was sustained by many people, and was 

 clinched by the experiments of Kaufmann in 

 1902. 



4. The concentration of the ionic charge, re- 

 quired to give the observed corpuscular inertia, 

 can be easily calculated; and consequently the 

 size of the electric nucleus, or electron, is 

 known. 



5. The old perception that a magnetic field 

 is kinetic has been developed by Kelvin, 

 Heaviside, FitzGerald, Hicks and Larmor, 

 most of whom have treated it as a flow along 

 magnetic lines; though it may also, perhaps 

 equally well, be regarded as a flow perpendic- 

 ular to them and along the Poynting vector. 

 The former doctrine is sustained by Larmor, 

 as in accordance with the principle of least 

 action, and with the absolutely stationary 

 character of the ether as a whole; the latter 

 view appears to be more consistent with the 

 theories of J. J. Thomson. 



6. A charge in motion is well known to be 

 surrounded by a magnetic field ; and the energy 

 of the motion can be expressed in terms of 

 the energy of this concomitant field — which 

 again must be accounted as the kinetic energy 

 of ethereous flow. 



7. Putting these things together, and con- 

 sidering the ether as essentially incompressible 

 — on the streng-th of the Cavendish electric 

 experiment, the facts of gravitation, and the 

 general idea of a connecting continuous 

 medium — the author reckons that to deal with 

 the ether dynamically it must be treated as 

 having a density of the order 10'° grams per 

 cubic centimeter. 



8. The existence of transverse waves in the 

 interior of a fluid can only be explained on 

 gyrostatic principles, i. e., by the kinetic or 

 rotational elasticity of Lord Kelvin. And the 

 internal circulatory speed of the intrinsic mo- 

 tion of such a fluid must be comparable with 

 the velocity with which such waves are trans- 

 mitted. 



9. Putting these things together, it follows 

 that the intrinsic or constitutional vortex 

 energy of the ether must be of the order 10°' 

 ergs per cubic centimeter. 



Conclusion. — Thus every cubic millimeter 

 of the universal ether of space must possess 

 the equivalent of a thousand tons, and every 

 part of it must be squirming internally with 

 the velocity of light. 



TBE AMERICAN ELEGTROCBEMIGAL 

 SOCIETY 



The twelfth general meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Electrochemical Society will be held in 

 New York City on October 17, 18 and 19 

 (Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the third 

 week of October). 



The meeting will be opened by an evening 

 session on Thursday, October 17. This ses- 

 sion as well as the morning session on Friday, 

 October 18, will be held at the Chemists' 

 Club, 108 West 55th Street. The morning 

 session of October 19 will be held in Have- 

 meyer Hall, Columbia University. Head- 

 quarters for registering and information are 

 at the Chemists' Club. Hotel headquarters 

 are at the Hotel Cumberland, 54th Street 

 and Broadway. 



On Friday afternoon an excursion will be 

 made to the laboratories of Mr. Thomas A. 

 Edison. Mr. Edison will receive the visitors 

 personally. A special car will be provided on 

 the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Rail- 

 road, the train leaving West 23d Street at 

 2:15. On the evening of Friday a subscrip- 

 tion dinner will be held in Liederkranz Hall. 

 Ladies are specially invited. 



On Saturday afternoon an excursion will be 

 made to the new Pennsylvania Railroad power 

 plant at Long Island City, the New York 

 Electrical Testing Laboratories and other 

 points or places of interest to be announced 

 at the meeting. On the evening -of Saturday 

 a smoker will be tendered to the American 

 Electrochemical Society by the Chemists' 

 Club. 



During the meetings there will be an exhibi- 

 tion of some novelties of electrochemical 

 products and apparatus at the Chemists' Club. 



The program of papers is as follows : 



Thursday Evening 

 8 P.M. — ^Reception and session at Chemists' Club. 

 8:40 P.M. — Illustrated lecture on "Diamond and 



