A Theory concerning the Constitution of Matter. 191 



The self-induction and time-constant have therefore been 

 reduced to one twenty-fourth part by sending the currents in 

 opposite directions round the two, but the method of winding 

 shown in fig. 5 could not, of course, be employed with the 

 non-inductive resistances constructed of bare wire for large 

 currents described in this communication ; since the funda- 

 mental condition — that parts differing much in potential should 

 not be near one another — would not be fulfilled. 



XVIII. A Theory concerning the Constitution of Matter. 

 By Chakles V. Bukton, D.Sc* 



THE theory described in the following pages is based essen- 

 tially on one fundamental hypothesis ; without the aid of 

 any further assumptions, equations of motion can be deduced, 

 and these, when simplified by certain conditions of symmetry, 

 "lead at once to Newton's Laws. In dealing — vaguely enough 

 — with other problems, such as gravitation and the discrete 

 nature of atoms, it is found necessary to make further limi- 

 tations ; and a few suggestions are also made whose nature is 

 purely speculative. But there remains the one central idea, 

 whose development is the especial object of this paper, and in 

 the concluding paragraphs the doctrine will be stated in its 

 most general form and the arguments once more briefly 

 enumerated. 



1. Space, so far as we know it, is filled with a medium, 

 whose ultimate nature may be fluid, but which, owing to tur- 

 bulent motion or some other cause, has elastic properties 

 resembling in some respects those of a solid. The resistance 

 offered by such a medium to the motion of material bodies pre- 

 sents a problem of some difficulty, so long as ive suppose an atom 

 to consist ahvays of the same portion ofaithereal or other substance; 

 but further on it will be shown that, with a different assump- 

 tion, the question may assume a new aspect. Before leaving 

 this subject, however, I may point out what appears to me a 

 very serious difficulty of the present view : a perfect vacuum 

 is (at least very nearly) a perfect insulator, and air also insu- 

 lates well, so that the sether surrounding an electrically 

 charged terrestrial body may remain in a state of stress for a 

 considerable period without appreciable progressive yielding, 

 while at the same time this charged body is being whirled 

 through the sether, which continually gives way like an almost 

 perfect liquid. 



* Communicated by the Physical Society: read November '20. L891. 



