58 
SCIENCE. 
THE FOURTH STATE OF MATTER. 
A REFUTATION. 
Translated for " SCIENCE” by Gustave Glaser , Phil. D. 
It may interest the readers of “ SCIENCE ” to know the 
opinion held in Germany respecting those phenomena 
which led Mr. W. Crookes to believe he had discovered a 
fourth state of matter. For this purpose we have trans- 
lated and abridged an article by Dr. J. Puluj, the well- 
known scientist of Vienna, published in the “ Chemiker 
Zeitung 
According to Mr. Puluj, the beautiful experiments of 
W. Hittorf published in 1869, under the title “ Electrical 
Conductibility of Gases,” have received too little attention 
from our scientists, it may be, on account of the modest 
title. The scientific labors of Goldstein, and some inter- 
esting researches of Reitinger and Urbanitzky have met 
with the same fate. W. Crookes, the renowned English 
chemist, to whom the writings of the above-named gen- 
tlemen were evidently unknown, made similar experi- 
ments, the results of which did not differ essentially from 
those of Mr. Hittorf. His conclusions were, however, 
entirely new ; he declared that his experiments proved a 
fourth state of matter. 
The conception was daring, still more daring the hopes 
which he and his friends based upon the discovery of 
“ radiant matter.” The cause of these high expectations 
is the following : When an electrical inductive current 
is led through a molten glass tube in which the air is at- 
tenuated to juVo °f its density, there appears on the nega- 
tive pole a blue (glimmering) light, which is separated by 
a dark space from the cluster of light at the positive pole. 
If a greater attenuation takes place, the cluster of light 
disappears and the glimmering light floats over the whole 
tube, while at the same time, next the electrode a second 
dark space appears which becomes greater with the 
greater attenuation. If the attenuation still further in- 
creases, the dark space fills the whole tube and the glass 
walls shine in a brilliant, green, phosphorescent light. 
Mr. Crookes now believes that this phenomenon of phos- 
phorescence comes from the remaining gas, which at this 
high state of attenuation has passed into an ultra-gaseous 
state, a “fourth state of matter.” 
But these phenomena are very different at a higher 
pressure. Direct measurements have shown that the 
phosphorescence does not appear at the millionth attenu- 
ation, and that the thirty thousandth attenuation is suffi- 
cient to produce it. Besides, this attenuated gas retains 
its characteristic properties, which could not be the case 
if by this attenuation it became dissolved into the original 
molecules which form, as Mr. Crookes says, the basis of 
all. 
That the physical properties of this remaining matter 
are not changed, but remain in strict accordance with the 
kinetic theory of gases, also proves that we have no new 
state, but simply a gaseous state of matter. For example, 
the above-mentioned phenomena, in experimenting with 
the lighter gases, are visible at a lower altenuation than 
in experimenting with the heavier gases. The supposi- 
tion of the renowned chemist, Dumas, that our elements 
are only chemicai combinations of higher order, and com- 
plicated aggregates of primitive molecules, has, un- 
doubtedly, much probability about it, but even the 
strongest electrical currents, and the highest tempera- 
tures, have not been able to produce this final dissolution 
ot the elements, therefore it is not likely that a high atten- 
uation can. 
Dr. Puluj’s experiments go to show that Mr. Crookes’ 
so-called radiant matter •• consists of negative electric 
particles,” which are torn off from the negative electrode 
and hurled away with immense rapidity. These elect- 
I rode particles form a very beautiful metallic mirror on 
the glass walls. [Aluminum particles are the only ones 
which form no metailic deposits. This may be accounted 
for by their chemical constitution.] The conduction of 
the current, therefore, is effected by the convection of the 
electrode particles, in which static electricity is accumu- 
lated. We have here a case of molecular electric con- 
vection, analogous to that observed by Mr. Rowland in 
his experiments. This gentleman has demonstrated that 
when a movable horizontally placed metal ring, charged 
with static, positive or negative, electricity is made to 
rotate around a vertical axis, it will divert a magnetic 
needle suspended above it, in -the same manner, as if an 
electric positive or negative current were to move in the 
same direction with, or in an opposite direction from, the 
rotation. These experiments of Rowland lead to the infer- 
ence that an infinitely small electrical globe, in our case 
an electrode particle, will have a similar influence upon 
a magnet. As long as the globe and magnet are at rest, 
it is to be expected that n’o alternate effect will appear, 
but that this will be produced as soon as the little globe 
is put into violent motion. Because the electrode par- 
ticles are negative electric, they represent a positive 
e ectric current, which moves in an opposite direction 
from the former. The electrode particles in motion are, 
therefore, real elements of an electric current, and are 
subjected to the law of Laplace. Their deviation takes 
place according to the following simple law : If we 
imagine that a plane is placed through the direction of 
the motion of the electrode-particle and through the 
north pole of the magnet, and suppose that a man is 
lying upon this electrode particle in the direction of the 
motion, and looking towards the north pole, then the 
electrode-particle will be diverted towards the left hand 
of this man, vertical to the imagined plane. This simple 
law gives a sufficient explanation for all the phenomena 
which a magnet produces in the radiant electrode-matter, 
and which were observed by Mr. Crookes 3s well as by 
Mr. Reitinger and Urbanitzky. It proves that the glim- 
mering light at the negative pole is not a “ magnetic ” 
light, but the consequence of a molecular electrical con- 
vection, and it justifies the supposition that an electrified 
current or vapor which is led through a tube will deviate 
the magnetic needle in the same manner as an electrical 
current going through a telegraph wire. 
The law of the indestructibility of force has already 
solved many problems which puzzled the scientist of 
earlier centuries. According to the same law, we must 
assume that when infinitely small projectiles of radiant 
electrode matter are hurled against the glass walls of the 
tube their motion is changed into molecular motion, and 
the glass walls are heated by the collisions, sometimes 
even to the melting point ; but at a lower temperature 
the rays which are not very much concentrated only pro- 
duce a phosphorescent light of the glass. 
The extremely fine matter called ether, which fills all 
space and pierces all bodies, surrounds the molecules, as 
the atmosphere surrounds our globe. Each body and 
each molecule has in its normal state a certain quantity 
of this ether. When this quantity is greater than the 
normal quantity, the molecules, according to the “Unita- 
rian view ” of elasticity, are positive electric ; when it is 
smaller, they are negative electric. 
Supposing now that a collision takes place between 
the negative electrode particles and the molecules of the 
glass walls of the tube, then the equilibrium will be re- 
stored at each point of collision and the molecules of the 
glass will lose their surplus of ether. At the same time 
a motion of the waves of ether will be observed, and this 
motion is felt by our optical nerves as phosphorescent 
light. Therefore the phosphorescence observed by W. 
Crookes is the result of the restoration of the ether-equi- 
librium and not of the heating of the glass, whose tem- 
perature during the appearance of this phenomenon is 
comparatively low. 
