tion. 



8 THE ACTIVE FORCES OF LIVING ORGANISMS 



therefore, to be some reason for supposing electricity 

 also to be, like heat and light, a mode of motion of 

 ether. 

 Matter is This way of looking at things has, moreover, the 

 to conduo- advantage that it enables us to understand why, as is 

 so often the case, one form of force is suddenly 

 transformed into or gives rise to another — heat to 

 light, chemical action to heat and electricity. If, on 

 the other hand, we put aside the theory that force is 

 always a mode of motion of matter, it will be seen 

 at once in what an argumentative quagmire we are 

 landed, for we should then be obliged to imagine it 

 as existing per se, and apart from matter, which 

 means that it would be produced out of nothing. 

 Such a conception, to say the least of it, transcends 

 the powers of human comprehension. Nevertheless, 

 the idea of empty space is so ingrained in our nature, 

 owing to the limited range of our senses, that it will 

 be long before it is completely banished from our 

 minds, as banished it must one day be, if we are to 

 form correct views of the universe. 



Once having subscribed to the theory that atoms 

 are little whirling masses of ether, one is naturally 

 inclined to go a step further, and to draw certain 

 deductions. The infinitesimal particles of which we 

 must suppose each atom to be composed are, so long 



that electricity in its usual form travels still faster may perhaps 

 be accounted for either by the absence of wave movement or 

 by other conditions affecting the mediunj of which we arg 

 ignorant. — F. H.J 



