1885.] The Relations of Mind and Matter. IESS 
and only be absorbed by substance of the same series. The 
range of material vibrations seems to be from about a hundred 
million million, or perhaps lower, to sixteen hundred million mil- 
lion pulsations per second. The slowest vibration emitted by an 
atom of rarer constitution might lie above this speed, and range 
upward from this point of rapidity? 
It is with the bound ether that we are here concerned, that 
which, in the opinion of many able scientists, surrounds material 
atoms and molecules like an atmosphere. The existence of such 
an ethereal atmosphere carries with it the implication of some 
conformity in motion between the atom and its atmosphere on 
the same general principle that operates in the case of the earth’s 
atmosphere. And the condensing relation between the atom and 
its atmosphere can hardly be any other than that of attraction. 
Yet it does not necessarily follow that the motions of the bound 
ether must be in every respect identical with those of the atom it 
surrounds. A motor leverage doubtless exists between them, but 
leverage of a different character may act on this bound ether 
from without. It may possess special motor conditions of its. 
own, as the terrestrial atmosphere while possessing the general 
motions of the earth has special motions which are not shared by 
the solid matter of the earth’s mass. 
These conclusions seem almost necessary deductions from the 
widely accepted view, above given, of the relations of matter and 
ether. There is another conclusion, at which we have already 
hinted, not a necessary yet a conceivable consequence, This is, 
that bound ether may, under certain favoring conditions, attain an 
organized state not dependent upon that of matter, and be capa- 
ble of permanently retaining this condition, If, as is probable, 
molecules composed of many atoms possess an ethereal atmos- 
phere, then the disruption of the molecule need not necessarily 
disrupt its associated ether. Though ether is organizable under 
the influence of matter, vet the forces which disrupt gross matter 
might, in certain cases, become powerless upon ether. If so,a 
mass of ether which had been organized by the influence of a 
mass of matter might retain that organization unimpaired after 
1 For an able and elaborate treatment of this subject see Professor A. S. Herschel’s 
letters in Wature, Vol. 27, pp- 458, 504, and Vol. 28, p. 294.. These were written 
in answers to articles by the writer on “ The Matter of Space,” and constitute an 
important treatise on the constitution of the ether, its relations to matter, and its 
possible atomic variations. 
