88 Dr. \V. F. G. Swann on 



state of affairs; and it may be asked whether the laws neces- 

 sary to decide for or against the hypothesis are not already 



known to us, so that all that is necessary in order to settle the 

 question is mathematical analysis. The answer to this question 

 requires rather careful consideration. If Ave take the consti- 

 tution of matter as entirely electrical, and following Larmor 

 ('iEther and Matter,' chapter x. ), lake the electromagnetic 

 scheme as the sole criterion for the determination of the 

 motions of the electrons, which themselves are considered 

 merely as singularities in the rether, there is absolutely 

 nothing to tell us what will happen to the matter as a result 

 of its motion, the apparent answer to the problem in the 

 case of uniform translatory motion being, as I have pointed 

 out in a former paper*, merely equivalent to a postulation 

 of the effect deduced. Taking the electron merely as a 

 singularity of the aether, the electromagnetic scheme can be 

 satisfied by any state of electronic motions we choose t" 

 assign, so that the asymmetrical expulsion of electrons from 

 the atom, for example, satisfies the scheme equally as well 

 as the symmetrical one. In order to decide what happens 

 when a piece of matter is set in motion, we must either know 

 the motion of each electron in the molecule, at some instant. 

 or we must devise sufficient subsidiary laws, as I have called 

 them, to restrict the types of electronic motions which can 

 exist, and satisfy the electromagnetic scheme, to those which 

 it is possible for the electromagnetic scheme to evolve out of 

 the matter as it originally existed. 



The electromagnetic scheme is capable of tracing the 

 motion of every electron in the universe for all time, pro- 

 vided that the complete state of motion is given at some 

 instant; and in this sense the scheme is certainly complete if 

 it is only true, and there is no loophole for the existence 

 of other laws such as gravitation, as laws distinct from it. 

 The fact that two pieces of neutral matter attract each other 

 when they are brought into each other's vicinity is not to 

 be looked upon as a separate law. but as a fact consistent 

 with the scheme but not required by it. (liven any initial 

 state of electronic motions, and the electromagnetic scheme 

 to guide them, in their future history, certain types of re- 

 gularity will show themselves in the system which ere not 

 required by the scheme fundamentally, but which exist in 

 virtue of the nature o( the Bystem originally created. Those 

 laws, which we call the law- of nature, are the uniformities 

 which evolve out ^\' the system which constitutes our mm erse; 

 at least this is the view which one must take o£ them if one 

 * Phil, Mag, 6 sxiii, | 3 



