1 84 DESIGN IN NATURE 



picture or spectrum produced. Sir William has been examining the phosphorescent glow of some rare earths, 

 the result of which is to convince him that he has found evidence of new elements. This judgment is founded on 

 the manner in which certain lines are distributed in the phosphorescent spectrum. He writes : "I consider I am 

 jxistified provisionally, and without undue insistence on what after all is only one of the many tests of newness, 

 in saying that I am in possession of good evidence pointing to the existence of two, if not three, new bodies waiting 

 to be isolated by chemical methods." 



It will be seen from what has been stated that matter and force are indestructible ; that matter and force 

 (physically spealdng) are inseparably united ; and that motion (in vortices or otherwise) is a characteristic of 

 matter. 



Matter has been defined by Messrs. Balfour Stewart and Tait " as the seat or vehicle of energy — that which 

 is essential to the existence of the known forms of energy, and without which there could be no transformation 

 of energy." 



The association of matter with force and with motion is exceedingly interesting and important as bearing 

 upon life, reproduction, growth, and development. Plants and animals are formed from the elements of the 

 universe, and the elements carry into the substance of both a certain amount of the force and movement which 

 inhere in the elements as such. This explains how, under the influence of life, plants and animals assume certain 

 forms and movements, especiallj' spiral forms and movements. If this view be adopted it is seen that life and 

 physical force work in the same directions, and that plants and animals, in building themselves up, at once avail 

 themselves of the matter, force, and movements of the universe. Nor need this view be restricted to spiral forms 

 and movements : it is equally applicable to the formation of crystals, and to all plants and animals which assume 

 crystallic shapes and are more or less symmetrical, of which there are comparatively a very large number. 

 Strictly speaking, living plants and animals are never quite symmetrical. Spiral structures, if single, are lopsided, 

 and if double, they overlap and produce symmetry of a kind. Living forms invariably diverge slightly from 

 absolute symmetry. Pasteur regarded the want of symmetry in living plants and animals as the distinguishing 

 characteristic of life. 



§ 31. New Theory of Matter. 



It will be convenient to discuss this all-important subject at this stage, and I cannot do better than quote 

 Professor G. H. Darwin, F.R.S., who gave a lucid and interesting account of it as President of the British Association 

 in 1905. He states : — 



" Until some ten years ago the essential diversity of the chemical elements was accepted by the chemist as 

 an ultimate fact, and indeed the very name of atom, or that which cannot be cut, was given to what was supposed 

 to be the final indivisible portion of matter. The vast edifice of modern chemistry has been built with atomic 

 bricks. 



" But within the last few years the electrical researches of Lenard, Rontgen, Becquerel, the Curies, Larmor and 

 Thomson, and of a host of others, have shown that the atom is not indivisible, and a flood of light has been thrown 

 thereby on the ultimate constitution of matter. Amongst all these fertile investigators it seems to me that Thomson 

 stands prominent, because it is principally through him that we are to-day in a better position for picturing the 

 structure of an atom than was ever the case before. 



" It has been shown that the atom, previously supposed to be indivisible, really consists of a large number of 

 component parts. By various convergent Unes of experiment it has been proved that the simplest of all atoms, 

 namely, that of hydrogen, consists of about 800 separate parts, while the number of parts in the atom of the denser 

 metals must be counted by tens of thousands. These separate parts of the atom have been called corpuscles or 

 electrons, and may be described as particles of negative electricity. 



" The corpuscles, being negatively electrified, repel one another just as the hairs of a person's head mutually 

 repel one another when combed with a vulcanite comb. The mechanism is as yet obscure whereby the mutual 

 repulsion of the negative corpuscles is restrained from breaking up the atom, but a positive electrical charge, or 

 something equivalent thereto, must exist in the atom, so as to prevent disruption. The existence in the atom 

 of this community of negative corpuscles is certain, and we know further that they are moving with speeds which 

 may in some cases be comparable to the velocity of hght, namely, 200,000 miles a second. But the mechanism 

 whereby they are held together in a group is hypothetical. 



" It appears that in general there are definite arrangements of the orbits in which the corpuscles must revolve, 

 if they are to be persistent or stable in their motions. Accordingly we may state that definite numbers are capable 

 of association in stable communities of definite types. 



