August 26, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



261 



ing at very high speeds, with every change 

 in its velocity.. 



Perhaps, however, the most impressive 

 alteration in our picture of the universe 

 required by these new theories is to be 

 sought in a different direction. We have 

 all, I suppose, been interested in the gen- 

 erally accepted views as to the origin and 

 development of suns with their dependent 

 planetary systems; and the gradual dissi- 

 pation of the energy which during this 

 process of concentration has largely taken 

 the form of light and radiant heat. Follow 

 out the theory to its obvious conclusions, 

 and it becomes plain that the stars now 

 visibly incandescent are those in mid-jour- 

 ney between the nebulge from which they 

 sprang and the frozen darkness to which 

 they are predestined. What, then, are we 

 to think of the invisible multitude of the 

 heavenly bodies in which this process has 

 been already completed ? According to the 

 ordinary view, we should suppose them to 

 be in a state where all possibilities of in- 

 ternal movement were exhausted. At the 

 temperature of interstellar space their con- 

 stituent elements would be solid and inert ; 

 chemical action and molecular movement 

 would be alike impossible, and their ex- 

 hausted energy could obtain no replenish- 

 ment unless they were suddenly rejuven- 

 ated by some celestial collision, or traveled 

 into other regions warmed by newer suns. 



This view must, however, be profoundly 

 modified if we accept the electric theory of 

 matter. We can then no longer hold that 

 if the internal energy of a sun were as far 

 as possible converted into heat either by its 

 contraction under the stress of gravita- 

 tion or by chemical reactions between its 

 elements, or by any other inter-atomic 

 force ; and that, were the heat so generated 

 to be dissipated, as in time it must be, 

 through infinite space, its whole energy 

 would be exhausted. On the contrary, the 

 amount thus lost would be absolutely in- 



significant compared with what remained 

 stored up within the separate atoms. The 

 system in its corporate capacity would be- 

 come bankrupt— the wealth of its individ- 

 ual constituents would be scarcely dimin- 

 ished. They would lie side by side, with- 

 out movement, without chemical affinity; 

 yet each one, howsoever inert in its external 

 relations, the theater of violent motions, 

 and of powerful internal forces. 



Or, put the same thought in another 

 form. When the sudden appearance of 

 some new star in the telescopic field gives 

 notice to the astronomer that he, and per- 

 haps, in the whole universe, he alone, is 

 witnessing the conflagration of a world, the 

 tremendous forces by which this far-off 

 tragedy is being accomplished must surely 

 move his awe. Yet not only would the 

 members of each separate atomic system 

 pursue their relative course unchanged, 

 while the atoms themselves were thus riven 

 violently apart in flaming vapor, but the 

 forces by which such a world is shattered 

 are really negligeahle compared with those 

 by which each atom of it is held together. 



In common, therefore, with all other liv- 

 ing things, we seem to be practically con- 

 cerned chiefly with the feebler forces of 

 nature, and with energy in its least power- 

 ful manifestations. Chemical affinity and 

 cohesion are on this theory no more than 

 the slight residual effects of the internal 

 electrical forces which keep the atom in 

 being. Gravitation, though it be the shap- 

 ing force which concentrates nebulse into 

 organized systems of suns and satellites, is 

 trifling compared with the attractions and 

 repulsions with which we are familiar be- 

 tween electrically charged bodies; while 

 these again sink into insignificance beside 

 the attractions and repulsions between the 

 electric monads themselves. The irregular 

 molecular movements which constitute heat, 

 on which the very possibility of organic life 

 seems absolutely to hang, and in whose 



