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 
wave length % = ’ v being distance traversed during 
n 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 
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 
a , b'. The line a b represents the displacement of the 
point c, 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 times 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 
