104 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



every second. These statistics, thus dealing with the infinitesimal in 

 time and matter, are based on well assured scientific data, and are 

 accepted by the leading physicists of the world. 



Infinitely small, however, as the molecules of air seem to human 

 comprehension, each one is composed of two or more theoretical atoms 

 clasped in a firm chemical embrace, and till recently these chemical 

 atoms were supposed to be the ultimate, absohttely indivisible particles 

 of matter. 



But Sir William Crookes with his vacuum tubes, and Henri 

 Becquerel with his radio-active elements and J. J. Thompson, distin- 

 guished Professor of Physics in the English University of Cambridge, 

 have come upon the stage with experiment and hypothesis, and ruth- 

 lessly shattered, both the long established theory, and the seemingly 

 infinitesimal atoms, at one fell swoop. 



The marvelous discoveries m the realm of physics which have 

 crowded upon each other during the past decade, have not been 

 more astonishing to the intelligent layman who but imperfectly under- 

 stands their import, than to the man of science who discerns in these 

 new revelations of radiant energy the necessity of laying the founda- 

 tions of science anew. 



Not by any means that the old working formulae are obsolete. 

 Nature does not vary in her methods. The mathematical tables appli- 

 cable to electrical phenomena, to the stress of building materials, to 

 chemical analysis and synthesis, to the motions of the heavenly bodies, 

 remain in force, and their usefulness is not impaired in the slightest 

 degree. Undeviating uniformity in her processes, is the law of Nature. 



As a matter of fact, this recent theory of the divisibility of the so- 

 called chemical atoms, does not do away with the established theory 

 of atomic proportions in the production of chemical compounds. On 

 the contrary, a knowledge of the old theoretical atoms is as essential 

 to the working chemist as it ever was, and the theory of atomic proper- ' 

 tions is as much of a verity as it ever was. 



The new discoveries regarding electrons, Becquerel rays, and 

 radium emanations, have obliterated no facts, nor have they changed 

 any working formula. What the physicist has learned is, that atoms, 

 though still the bases of chemical compounds, are nevertheless di- 

 visible. 



But while atoms still retain their technical name, and the chemi- 

 cal formulas remain undisturbed, glimpses of new and startling truths 

 respecting the constitution of matter, chemism, electricit}^, radiant en- 

 ergy, and the mysterious ether of space, are vouchsafed to the student 

 of physics. 



Crookes found that by passing a powerful charge of electricity 

 through a vacuum tube exhausted to one-millionth of an atmosphere, 

 particles of the residual gas are thrown out from the negative pole in 

 streams strong enough to set a finely balanced wheel in motion. These 

 minute particles so projected he called radiant matter, and other 

 physicists have named them ions, electrons, and corpuscles. 



Prof. Thomson investigated these rays or electrons and showed 

 that they are particles of matter having a mass only about one-thous- 

 andth of that of a hydrogen atom, which has heretofore been looked 

 upon as the smallest particle of matter existing. 



Then Wilhelm Eoentgen, a German scientist, appeared upon the 

 scene, and showed that certain rays emitted from the Crookes tubes 

 possess the power of penetrating opaque substances. After the dis- 

 covery of the X-rays all these strange phenomena were studied with yet 

 lieener interest, and the nature and origin of the mysterious rays earn- 



