140 Rutherford: Modern 



the ideas of Faraday in matliematical form by Clerk 

 Maxwell. 



Following the publication of Maxwell's famous " Elec- 

 tromagnetic Theory of Light " most English physicists 

 became converts to the views of Faraday and Maxwell, 

 though the theory was little known or understood out- 

 side of that country. It required the verification of 

 Maxwell's theory by the classical experiments of Hertz 

 on electrical waves to draw instant and universal atten- 

 tion to the new point of view. At once the old notion 

 of action at a distance gave way to the more rational and 

 physical conception that electric and magnetic effects 

 were due to stresses and strains in the medium or ether 

 which filled all space and penetrated all bodies. 



On these views, the energy of the electric current, for 

 example, is not transferred through the wire itself, but 

 mainly through the medium surrounding the wire. At- 

 tention for the time was thus transferred from the actual 

 carriers of the electric current to the medium surround- 

 ing them. 



We shall now consider another great advance made 

 by Faraday in showing the very remarkable relation that 

 exists between electricity and matter. Following the dis- 

 covery of the voltaic cell, it had been dimly recognized 

 that there existed a close connection between electricity 

 and matter, but the exact nature of this relation was 

 made clear by Faraday's famous experiments on elec- 



