1 86 DESIGN IN NATURE 



at first hand) or action at a distance (gravitation). This led Helmholtz and others to claim for force the 

 imperishability accorded to matter. 



The law of the conservation and dissipation of energy followed as a necessary sequence. It was felt that if 

 matter as represented by the elements and the ether occupied all space, force also occupied all space, and that the 

 changes could be rung on matter and force to an indefinite extent throughout the universe. All this was 

 intelligible, but a school has lately arisen which sets aside and dispenses with every form of gross matter, and deals 

 with what may be regarded as its intangible manifestations. The new doctrine has been ably stated by Mr. Arthur 

 J. Balfour in his admirable address, entitled " Eeflections Suggested by the New Theory of Matter," delivered at 

 Cambridge (August 17, 1904) in his capacity as President of the British Association. He says : " To-day there 

 are those who regard gross matter, the matter of every-day experience, as the mere appearance of which electricity 

 is the physical basis ; who think that the elementary atom of the chemist, itself far beyond the Umits of direct 

 perception, is but a connected system of monads or sub-atoms which are not electrified matter, but are electricity 

 itself ; that these systems differ in the number of monads which they contain, in their arrangement, and in their 

 motion relative to each other and to the ether ; that on these differences, and on these differences alone, depend 

 the various qualities of what have hitherto been regarded as indivisible and elementary atoms ; and that while 

 in most cases these atomic systems may maintain their equilibrium for periods which, compared with such astro- 

 nomical processes as the cooling of a sun, may seem almost eternal, they are not less obedient to the law of change 

 than the everlasting heavens themselves. 



'' But if gross matter be a grouping of atoms, and if atoms be systems of electrical monads, what are these 

 electrical monads ? It may be that, as Professor Larmor has suggested, they are but a modification of the 

 universal ether, a modification roughly comparable to a knot in a medium which is inextensible, incomprehensible, 

 and continuous. But whether this final unification be accepted or not, it is certain that these monads cannot be 

 considered apart from the ether. It is on their interaction with the ether that their qualities depend ; and without 

 the ether an electric theory of matter is impossible. ... A Uttle more than a century ago electricity seemed but a 

 scientific toy. It is now thought by many to constitute the reality of which matter is but the sensible expression. 

 It is but a century ago that the title of an ether to a place among the constituents of the universe was authenti- 

 cally established. It seems possible now that it may be the stuff out of which that universe is wholly built. When 

 the sudden appearance of some new star in the telescopic field gives notice to the astronomer that he, and perhaps 

 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 driven violently apart in 

 flaming vapour, but the forces by which such a world is shattered are really negligible compared with those by 

 which each atom of it is held together. 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 shaping 

 force which concentrates nebulae into organised systems of suns and satellites, is trifling compared with the attrac- 

 tions and repulsions with which we are familiar between electrically charged bodies ; while these again sink into 

 insignificance beside the attractions and repulsions between the electric monads themselves. The irregular mole- 

 cular movements which constitute heat, on which the very possibility of organic life seems absolutely to hang, 

 and in whose transformations applied science is at present so largely concerned, cannot rival the kinetic energy 

 stored within the molecules themselves. The starry heavens have from time immemorial moved the worship or 

 the wonder of mankind. But if the dust beneath our feet be indeed compormded of innumerable systems, whose 

 elements are ever in the most rapid motion, yet retain through uncounted ages their equihbrium unshaken we 

 can hardly deny that the marvels we directly see are not more worthy of admiration than those which recent dis- 

 coveries have enabled us dimly to surmise. . . Whether this vehement sentiment in favour of a simple universe 

 has any theoretical justification I will not venture to pronounce. There is no a priori reason that I loiow of for 

 expecting that the material world should be a modification of a single medium, rather than a composite structure 

 built out of sixty or seventy elementary substances, eternal and eternally different." 



The new theory of matter aims at establishing simphcity and unity, and those who advocate it are disinclined 

 to believe in a great number of elements. While it is possible to accept the ether theory and the doctrine of strain 

 or action at first hand, there is no need to discredit gross matter and action at a distance. The old and new 

 theories of matter are not necessarily opposed to each other. The new view is in no way contrary to older theories 

 of the atonoic and molecular theories of matter, but is an extension and explanation of these, and, in the hands of 

 Professor J. J. Thomson, has made, at any rate to physicists, a simplification and rational view of these without 

 introducing the question of physical reality. It is possible to believe in what is seen and felt, and also in what is 

 unseen and intangible. It is also possible to believe in action at a distance, as witnessed in gravitation and also 



