238 DESIGN IN NATURE 



necessary, under certain circumstances, to establish an equilibrium which is invariably beneficial. The aggre- 

 gating and marshalUng, and the breaking up and distributing of matter goes on incessantly, but the synthetic 

 and analytic processes are all under control and supervision. Is a new molecule to be formed ? The atoms are 

 provided, assorted, and the necessary combining powers conferred. Is a certain cell required ? Atoms and 

 molecules of particular kinds are forthcoming for its production. Is a tissue, a gland, or a special organ a deside- 

 ratum ? Adequate and special preparations are made which exclude the possibility of failure. All these thmgs are 

 achieved not by accident but by design and forethought. 



Is an old star, or sun, or system, to be destroyed and new ones formed ? They are broken up and thrown 

 into the seething, nebulous cauldron. From the white, molten, gaseous, formless mass, suddenly a centre of 

 attraction appears which assumes right or left spiral movements, and draws towards itself outlying nebulous matter 

 in ever-widening spiral streams ; or conversely, the spiral streams acting from without converge upon a central 

 point and so form a spiral nucleus. That heavenly bodies at times explode, fly ofl[ at tangents, and form new 

 combinations is well ascertained. A time arrives when the new sphere is completed and launched into space 

 on its own account. 



Is an existing sun waning and wasting ? It is fed as regards heat and energy by effete bodies attracted to it, 

 and which, crossing its path and colliding, restore the lost energy and heat in the proportions required. 



These cosmic and other operations are all planned. If there were not law, order, and method of the most 

 far-reaching description, catastrophes of the most appalling kind would be incessantly occurring. The fact that 

 they do not occur, or to the most trifling extent, is the most convincing proof we can possibly have that design 

 reigns supreme in the universe. 



Until a comparatively recent period the atom was regarded as the smallest conceivable particle. Sir William 

 Crookes, however, showed (circa 1870) that matter in a still more minute state of division than the atom existed, 

 that in fact the atom itself was formed by the coalescence of still more minute particles which pervaded space. 

 He claimed for matter a fourth estate, and maintained that there was a form of matter which could not strictly 

 be classed either as solid, liquid, or gaseous in the ordinary sense ; the said matter being ultra or super-divided and 

 separated. The subject has recently (1903) been taken up by Sir Ohver Lodge. I refer to his researches in passing 

 because of their supposed intimate connection with the ultimate matter of the universe. Sir Oliver remarks that 

 the ultra or super-divided matter consists of fragments of matter, ultra-atomic corpuscles, minute things, very much 

 smaller, very much lighter than atoms — things which appear to be the foundation-stones of which atoms are com- 

 posed. Professor J. J. Thomson measured the mass of these particles and found that they were of less mass than 

 the atom of hydrogen ; whereas the atom of hydrogen had been the lightest body hitherto known. These small 

 corpuscles, also called electrons, were about the one-thousandth of an atom of hydrogen in mass, and he further 

 made this important observation, that whether hydrogen or oxygen or carbonic acid, or any other gas was in 

 Crookes's tube, the particles into which these substances seemed to be broken up by electric action were identical 

 and independent of the nature of the gas in the tube. The speed at which the corpuscles travel was found to be 

 something comparable to that of light — about one-thirtieth or sometimes even one-tenth of the velocity of hght. 

 Anything moving with the prodigious speed of several thousand miles per second must have a great amount of 

 energy, and, when stopped by a target, naturally considerable results are produced : their inertia is extremely small, 

 but a body, no matter how small, moving \vith the speed of light, must have terrible energy. M. Becquerel was 

 the first to discover the radio-active powers of matter. In the researches of Dr. Russell various substances were 

 found to possess this quaUty of giving out something on their own account. The most important developments 

 were made by Monsieur and Madame Curie in France, who found that polonium possessed the properties of 

 uranium, and that radium in turn possessed the properties of uranium in a most extraordinary degree. The rays 

 given off by these substances are of extraordinary interest ; they have marvellous penetrating powers, and are 

 very intense — more intense than the X-rays given by a Rontgen tube. Radium rays will not only penetrate a foot 

 of aluminium or wood, but they will penetrate three-eighths of an inch of lead, and then be as strong as are the 

 rays from uranium. There are three kinds of radiation : (1) particles which are readily stopped by obstacles, absorb- 

 able rays ; (2) the particles which penetrate obstacles with singularly penetrating power ; and (3) the ordinary X-rays. 

 The X-rays are waves in the ether— not hght. The penetrating rays are electrons which are shot off. But the 

 most interesting are the first rays, those which are easily stopped ; for these turn out to be atoms of matter shot 

 ofT with a speed comparable to that of hght. Professor Rutherford, now of Montreal, has measured for the first 

 time the speed of these readily stopped, absorbable particles, and also their mass. He shows that they are atoms 

 of matter, and that they are moving with one-tenth of the velocity of light. 



The size of the electrons is about one hundred thousandth part of the diameter of an atom, otherwise they 

 would not have sufficient inertia. They are the smallest bodies known. The electrons occupy the atom very effec- 



