SCIENCE. 



239 



theory of the ether, and we know the rate of transmis- 

 sion of some forms of energy in this medium to be 

 186,000 miles per second. It follows then that energy 

 resides in this medium in some form, and it is a mat- 

 ter of experiment to determine the particular form. 

 Thus what is called light and sometimes heat is known 

 to have an undulatory form, and the mechanism of the 

 conditions may be easily perceived. Thus, let the dark 



V 



wave leiwth * = — ' v being distance traversed during 



a n O b 



11 vibrations, v being quite independent of the ampli- 

 tude a b. As such displacement a b, whether it be 

 small or large, sets up corresponding motions in the 

 ether, it follows that any displacement of matter in 

 ether, whether it be a part of an atom or the whole 

 atom, that is, whether it be so called internal energy 



Fig. 



ring V (Fig. 1), represent an atom of any matter, say 

 hydrogen (the simplest form of vortex ring). Suppose 

 it to vibrate its fundamental, then will the point c 

 move over the line a b, and the circle will assume an 

 elliptical form alternating with another ellipse with 

 major axis at right angles to the former, in the line 



or external energy, will originate in the adjacent ether 

 a corresponding movement, which will travel outwards 

 with a velocity which will depend solely upon the trans- 

 latory property of the ether. This property is some- 

 times called elasticity, but as elasticity is a property 

 of matter and ether is not matter, and as the actual 



Fig. 



a, l>'. The line a b represents the displacement of the 

 point e, in other words, it is the amplitude of vibration 

 of the ring. It is such vibratory motions of atoms that 

 constitutes what we call heat, and we know furthermore 

 that such vibratory motion sets up in the ether sur- 

 rounding the atom-undulations which constitute what 

 are called rays. Such undulations c d travel out- 

 wards in every direction, and the length c d is called a 



velocity of transmission is so many tunes greater than 

 in any elastic matter we know, I prefer to say I don't 

 know anything of the specific properties of ether, and 

 do not say that it is even elastic. The undulatory 

 motion in ether is utterly unlike the vibratory motion 

 of the matter that originates it and it ought not to be 

 called by the same name. Furthermore, as atoms 

 differ in mass, so will their rates of vibration differ when 



