Science and Faith

Introduction

Unsolved problems of science—Modesty of some, and presumption of other scientists—Limited view of specialists— Aims and adaptation of the work—Technicalities avoided— Some current hypotheses restudied—A contribution to independent thinking—Instances of scientific inaccuracies—Final conclusions not yet reached—The author’s apology for ap- MEA LIN warlieACOULe saree mete Ryans Renin swine mie se Maen So srea 15

IPH, ELRHER-OR SPACE.

Derivation of the name—Its recent discovery—Not immediately known—History of its discovery—Influence as active agent in motion of planets not mooted hitherto—Newton’s conception of its functions—Entitative character, a discrimination—Need of a subtile agent—lIs electricity capable of its functions >—Hypothetical source of material elements—Views of specialists on this hypothesis—Agreement as to a planetary medium—Characteristics and some of its functions......... 25

Wis JHOIDS IKI MEN.

Discovery and name—Its pervasiveness and inferences from this fact—Material elements differ in capacity for electric charges—Volume variable per mass of matter—Distribution over the earth—Potential at different elevations—Confirmation of old idea—Relation to crises of various sorts— Relation to cohesion, expansion, and to the three forms of matter—Integrative function—Persistence of surcharges— Relation to movements of masses of matter—Relation to astronomical movements—Hypotheses as to its essence—Facts to be accounted for—To be regarded as a distinct essence.. 42

III. THE ATMOSPHERE.

Name from a limited conception—History of investigations of its components—Boyle, Lavoisier, Mayow, Stahl,

Hale, Black, Rutherford, Priestly, Scheele, Dalton, Gay-Lus- 5

PAGE

6 CONTENTS sac, Cavendish, Avagadro, Ramsay, Clausius, Clerk-Maxwell, Travers, Von Helmont, Boerhave, Fourcroy, Vanquelin, Guyton de Morveau, Northmore, Davy, Faraday, Corletett, Pictet, Andrews, Bunsen, Stromeyr, Monge Clouet, Cagnard de la Tour, Dewar, the chief investigators—Liquification— Kinetic theory—Constituent elements =) 11 y 14 iteee roo

IV. THE STRUCTURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE.

Scope of the theme—Kinetic theory held tentatively— Assumptions of the theory—Induction of facts on which tenable explanations may be made—Tyndall’s conceptions— Illustrations of spheroidal forms and of aloofness of free particles—Levity of solid matter in dry pulverized form— Chemical avidity and osmose—Surface tension and capillary attraction—Requirements of the problem—Elucidation according to the requirements—Electrical component and its TNPOTtane ee ata ere rae we eave cee ea eae Soe oe ae

V. ELECTRICAL SPHERES.

Discriminations and name for the larger electrical spheres —Real agents of phenomena rarely specified, and the reason —Technical misnomers repudiated—Electrispheres ; instances, and Tyndall’s discovery—Other proofs from telescopists and spéctroscopists—The planetary electrispheres—That of the earth illustrated—Proportional to atmospheres of planets— That of the moon and of comets—An error of standard text-books, and gases of comets cited—Atmospheres of the planets of the Solar System—Electrification discreet, and related to their distribution in the system according to Bode’s Law..

VI. THE REAL AND THE NON-REAL IN PHYSICS.

A just discrimination—Heat formerly supposed to be a stibstance—Carnot’s anticipations of the laws of Thermodynamics and of the conservation of energy—Count Rumford’s discovery—Sir Humphrey Davy’s confirmation of Rumford— Prescott Joule’s experiments—Thermodynamics developed by Clausius and Kelvin—Heat defined as “a mode of molecular motion”’—Relation of the ether to heat—Relation of etheric agitation to sensation—A distinction important to philosophy —Misconception in connection with Joule’s experiment—Need

CONTENTS to discover the real agents of phenomena, as of gravitation— Professor Owen’s hypothesis—Relation of heat and its real cause to weight and to gravitation—Real agent of soundpropagation pervades all matter, and is not “waves in air”..

VII. MAGNETS AND MAGNETISM.

Lodestone and its properties—Appearance of the mariner’s compass on the Mediterranean—Maharn’s account of the compass—Norman’s discovery of the dipping-needle—Dr. Gilbert’s De Magnete and discoveries—Investigations of the earth’s magnetism and discovery of magnetic poles—The agonic lines—Magnetic meridians and variations—Periodic variations indicating vaster magnetic relations—Relation of the galaxy to the earth’s magnetism—Circular closed orbits of planets a fiction—‘‘Astronomy is physics in a wider sphere” —-Discoveries of Peter Barlow and his associates—Investigations of Ampere and Arago as to relations of electricity to magnetism—Relation of heat, or etheric agitation, to magnetism—Christie’s experiments and inferences—Sir Humphrey Davy’s discoveries, including Faraday—Faraday’s conception of “lines of magnetic force’—Dr. Kerr’s discovery of certain relations of light to magnetism—Distinct ideas of the ether’s relation to magnetism discovered by Professors Gore, Tait, Barrett, Hopkinson, Moris, Osmond, Matteucci, Villari and Lord Kelvin, as shown by sundry effects of light and heat— Bidwell’s study of stress and strain—Ewing’s discovery of electrical hysteresis—The ether and electricity seem to be the real agents of magnetic effects of every kind...............

VIII. THE ETHER AND MAGNETISM.

Magnetism, cohesion, valency and gravitation due to the same agents—Magnetization an electrical process—Harmonizes with idea of hysteresis, and with findings as to critical points of temperature in magnetization—Magnetism due to action of the ether; explanation of conditions—Three entitative things indispensable—Influence of the earth on smaller magnets— Influence of light and heat effects—Citation from Professor Ebert and Dr. Walker—Summary of evidences—Luminous phenomena of polar regions—Occasion of etheric vortices and of repulsion and attraction—Of a frictionless region of

NI

8 CONTENTS molecular activity—Molecular rotation in relation to magnetism—Relation of inertia to the problem—The element “mag- MetOntee yp OtMetiCalinteretets ste tetctes cles otepale ater steeetsgevrieteistoces terete eyelid

IX. THE ETHER AND GRAVITATION.

Ether waves deflected and retarded by matter—Their capacity to move matter—Effected by pulsion—Aim to show the ether to be the active agent in producing and in maintaining planetary motion—Resistance a function of matter, and reaction always follows—Instance of the earth’s resistance— Cohesion, magnetism and gravitation homogeneous—Different degrees of cohesion—Process of cohesion observable under electrical pulsion—Objections answered—Action of waves against resistance—Influence of etheric agitation on weight, etc—Weight and gravitation due to the same agents—Citation from Sir William Ramsay—Curious facts confirming the view, as osmosis—Molecular magnetization—Solidification within range of etheric agitation—Relation of solids to process of freezing—Study of wave action in disintegration and aggregation—A larger view—Uniformity and simplicity of Nature’s processes—Instances of material resistance and of variable resistance—Difference of potential of differing wave-lengths—Etheric resistance to cometic matter at perihelion— Harmony of all the observed facts

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X. THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF PLANETARY MOTION.

Tentative illustration of a closed system, and generalization of Clausius—Law of Thermodynamics a fundamental error—“Entropy” illustrated—Different effects upon diamagnetic and paramagnetic substances—Errors as to centrifugal force—The whole realm of the ether a vast magnetic field— Arrangement of magnetic poles of planets by electric and magnetic action, illustrated—Flamarion propounds a law— Orbital motion within magnetic “lines of force,” illustrated— Hypotheses of etheric currents, and alternative—Wave theory of gravitation tenable—The greater problem of planetary motion

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XI. THE ESSENCE OF LIFE.

What is lifeP—Dr. Loeb’s investigations as to materialism —Scope of his work: the aim of his task—Successes and

CONTENTS failures of the physical chemists—Did life migrate from other worlds ?—Claims of Dr. Bastian and Leduc—Dr. Loeb’s admissions—Dr. Castle’s experiments and _ testimony—Dr. Loeb’s fairness in accepting his task—Facts and conclusions im re dual parentage and Loeb’s negative results—His naive admissions—Bergson on the persistence of certain species— The mule’s tacit admission—Testimony of consciousness— Life’s power to initiate motion its chief characteristic—All other elements inert—Haeckel’s testimony—Darwinism does not attempt to account for life—Bergson’s conceptions and attack on Darwinism—Life an entitative essence............

XII. FUNCTIONS OF TERRESTRIAL LIFE.

Common characteristics of life: 1. All life from antecedent life. 2. Dual parentage and power of reproduction. 3. Transmutation of material elements. 4. Constructs and maintains forms persistently. 5. Dominates something. 6. Renders some special service in the general scheme of Nature—No abrupt transitions—Importance of functions of lower forms —Dominancy the leading principle of classification—Plant brute and human: three kinds of dominancy—Superiority of human dominancy—Human powers a contrast—Their limits— Capabilities unchanged; attainments progressive—Summing UDROLsCONCEPLONS wm arn tir ape nee Se ee tmiee nee

XIII. HIGHER POSSIBILITIES OF LIFE.

Aspects of the problem—Life on other worlds—Discussion by Whewell and Brewster—Proctor’s contribution—A broader view prevalent—Bergson’s comment—Remark by A. Campbell as to such problems—No theory of terrestrial life opposed to conception of life on other worlds—Higher attainments may have been reached elsewhere—The grounds of probabilities—Argument from planetary distribution—From orderly relations and differences of the material elements according to the Periodic Law—Periodicity a characteristic of life-phenomena—The Nebular Hypothesis fails to account for motion of any kind—In the present state of knowledge Life is the only source of initial motion; but is known to be capable of every sort of control, or dominance, requiredabys thes problemas since ee eerie e ie Nate oschell>

10 CONTENTS

XIV. PERSISTENT ANCIENT IDEAS OF LIFE,

Comparison of ancient and recent ideas of life proposed— Dispute as to age of Pentateuch avoided—Ancient twofold idea of origins; an azoic period and an age of formation from pre-existing materials—Phenomenal descriptions—Suspension of aqueous vapors in the atmosphere—Limits of inter-breeding and inviolability of the species—Life from pre-existing life—Superior dominance of humanity—Preservation of these and other ideas by the Hebrews—Remarkable facts in relation to the persistence of these ideas—Conclu- SION Na. arsotee Stes eee LEGG bohea ots Hees starter oke ESR

AUTHORS CITED

Airy, Sir John, 204.

Ammonius, of Alexandria, 337.

Andrews, Thomas, 73.

Arago, Dominique F., 162.

Arrhenius, Svante, 250, 251.

Avogadro, Count Amadeo, 67.

Bacon, Roger, 144.

Bonnycastle, Charles, 161.

Barrett, William, 169.

Barry, Martin, 255.

Bastian, Dr. Henry C., 251.

Bernoulli, Daniel, 62, 67, 78.

Bidwell, Shelford, 172.

Black, Joseph, 64.

Boerhave, Herman, 70.

Bois, H. E. J. G. du, 169.

Boutigny, M., 85.

Brewster, Sir David, 300, 301.

Bredichin, Fedor A., 215.

Berzelius, John Jacob, 247.

Bonnet, Charles, 255.

Brush, George Jarvis, 69.

Boyle, Robert, 62, 63.

Bussy, Antoine A. B., 71.

Bunsen, Robert W., 76.

Byron, Lord (George Gordon), 106.

Cagnard de la Tour, 73.

Cailletet, Louis, 72.

Campbell, Alexander, 305.

Castle, Dr. William, 252, 253. Cavello, M., 164.

Cavendish, Henry, 65, 66.

Clouet, M., 71.

Cook, Dr. Joseph, 255.

Cohn, Ferdinand Julius, 266.

Crookes, Sir William, 187.

Dalton, John, 64, 65.

Darwin, Charles, 266.

David, Psalmist, 311.

Dewar, Sir James, 74.

Delaunny, M., 232.

De Vries, M., 257.

Dumas, Jean Baptiste, 255.

Dujardin, Felix, 265.

Emerson, George Barrell, 338.

12 AUTHORS

Foucault, Jean, 212.

Fourcroy, Antoine F., 71.

Flamarion, M., 232.

Fraunhofer, Joseph von, 199.

Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis, 65, 67.

Gilbert, Dr. William, 42, 148, 149,

Gleichen, M., 255.

Gore, George, 169.

Haeckel, Ernst H., 34, 263, 264. Hale, Rev. Stephen, 64.

Helmholtz, Herman L., 199, Herschel, Sir William, 157.

Herschel, Sir John, 109, 156.

Hertz, Henriech, 199.

Hicks, John Braxton, 204.

Hipparchus, 292.

Home, Sir Everard, 255.

Hooke, Robert, 27, 28.

Hopkinson, John, 170, 176.

Huxley, Thomas, 240, 272.

Huggins, Christian, 199.

Humboldt, Friedrick W., 161, 189.

131,

Joule, James Prescott, 124, 129, 199,

Kant, Immanuel, 240.

Kepler, Johann, 234.

Kircher, Jesuit Father, 164.

CEEED

Kirchhoff, Gustav R., 199.

Kolliker, Rudolph A., 255.

Kraft, Georg Wolfgang, 161.

Laplace, Pierre Simon, 247, 321.

Laudolt, Hans, 204.

Leewenhook, Antonius von, 254.

Leidenfrost, Johann G., 84, 85.

229;

Maharn, Peter, 144.

Mariott, Edme, 62.

Matteucci, V. R., 171.

Mayow, Dr. John, 63, 65.

Mendel, Johann Gregor, 243, 275, 293.

Mickelson, A. A., 212.

Millikan, Robert A., 23.

Mohl, Hugo von, 266.

Monge, Gaspard, 71.

Muller, Johannes, 255.

Natterer, Johann, 71.

Nerst, Walher, 206.

Newcomb, Simon, 213.

New Testament, 333.

AUTHORS CITED 13

Norman, Robert, 146, 147.

Northmore, 71.

Oersted, Hans C., 162.

Olzewski, C. H., 72.

Osmond, Isaac, 171, 176.

Oswald, William, 247.

Paul the apostle, 310, 334, 338.

Pettenkofer, Max von, 246.

Phillips, Dr. John C., 252.

Pictet, Raoul, 72.

Poisson, S., 158.

Priestly, Rev. Joseph, 64.

Proctor, Richard A., 155, 301, 302.

Ramsay, Sir William, 34, 66, 68, 204.

Rayleih, Lord, 68.

Reynolds, Osborne, 133.

Rucker, A. W., 152.

Rumford, Count, 122, 123.

Rutherford, Daniel, 64, 65.

Salisbury, Lord, 40.

Scheele, Carl W., 64, 66.

Schemes Drei] Osmildl 112: 199.

Scoersby, William, 164.

Spalanzani, 255.

Stahl, George Earnest, 64.

Stoney, Dr. Johnstone, 57, 109. Stromeyer, M., 71.

Thales, of Miletus, 42, 142.

Thilorier, M., 71.

Thompson, Sir William. See Kelvin.

Thompson, Benjamin. See Rumford.

Theophrastus, 42.

Trench, Dr. R. C., 336.

Van Helmont, Jean Baptiste, 70.

Verne, Jules, 309.

Villari, Pasquale, 171. ;

Von Struve, Frederick, 157.

Walker, Dr. 317.

Webber, W., 158.

Whewell, Dr. William, 300, 301.

Wagner, Rudolf, 255.

Wulf, Th., 34.

Young, Dr. Charles, 312, 313, S/Ag

Zolner, Johann Karl F., 199.

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGES Heat belts of the earth, equatorial and meridional.......... 45 Electrical surcharges, variable and persistent............... 53

The relation of the planet to its electrispheres and to the

INTRODUCTION

The great problems of science that still wait for solution pertain to very familiar things, and they are properly classed as elementary and fundamental. Scientists and philosophers admit frankly that they do not yet know what anything is essentially. Whether or not all the so-called material elements are resolvable into one primitive elemental substance is under discussion. In what manner, or by what agent, the distribution of the atoms of the atmosphere is maintained, is explained by a theory that lacks confirmation and that contradicts several persistent old theories. The prime causes of magnetism and of gravitation are barely apprehended. There are many physical relations in the Solar System which astronomers naively declare to be independent of gravitation and which they are unable to explain. Whether life is a real essence or a mere chemical reaction is a problem that has recently awakened profound interest.

Even this partial enumeration of elementary things that are still beyond the ken of the greatest savants, suffices to account for the modesty of the foremost scholars of the age; but even 15 more strikingly does it indicate the enormity of the presumption of that class of specialists who have of late become so pronounced in their declarations concerning what does not exist in the universe, and as to what can not be the prime causes of those phenomena which still wait for explanation.

If one could ask a mite to express a serious judgment concerning the universe, it would doubtless answer, “Cheese.” A mite is a specialist in cheese. If the inquiry were pressed with a view of obtaining from this specialist some notion of a vital agency in the production of cheese, it would probably answer, “Nothing but cheese!” Could the mite be supplied with adequate verbiage for expressing its views in the manner of a scientific specialist, it might add, “In the present state of our knowledge, in which is summed up the observations of the mitey experts in cheese, we find no justification for saying more, or other, than simply cheese!” | Considering its sphere of operations, no fairminded person would blame the little philosopher for its limited conception.

The writer believes that the progress in knowledge, made during the past three-quarters of a century especially, enables at this time a nearer approach to an understanding of some of our human problems; and he has attempted in the several chapters of this volume to systematically blaze a way leading toward the penetralium of their mysteries. There is no class of thoughtful persons for whom the topics discussed have not a vital interest. But there are very many capable people who, for lack of opportunity, or of inclination, have failed to acquaint themselves with those main facts and principles which are indispensable to the elucidation of problems of this kind. To enable this class of readers to give intelligent attention to current announcements and discussions relating hereto, the utmost care has been taken in the course of the following study to supply the needed data for an intelligent apprehension of the themes treated. As much as has been possible, unfamiliar technical terms and formula have been avoided, to adapt the work to the requirements of the general reading public. It is believed that any one of ordinary intelligence will be able to follow the line of thought.

The facts, that every known phenomenon is capable of being expressed in mathematical terms, that the reciprocal actions of the agents involved may be represented by mathematical equations, and that Nature’s processes are so uniform and so invariable, where conditions are the same, that results may be predicted with mathematical accuracy when the exact physical 2 conditions and relations of all the elements of a phenomenon are known, should be of great interest to every thoughtful person. For the shorthand writing of physical specialists it is convenient to employ such mathematical terms; but it is not necessary to do so in order to express clearly and accurately scientific conceptions. Indeed, it is not always desirable to use those highly technical expressions, even when writing or speaking for technically trained readers and hearers. In a work intended for all classes of readers it is deemed to be wholly undesirable.

The writer has no desire to appear learned in the technique of the sciences, the facts of which are appealed to in this study. He entertains no fear of sneers on the part of capable persons having expert knowledge. These, to whose class he is most indebted, will most readily apprehend the main design of the work, and will most thoroughly understand his motive for adopting and strictly adhering to the simplest possible diction throughout the work. The only fear in regard to the treatment of the subject is, that some quite capable readers may fail to pursue the themes upon the unjustifiable ground that they are incapable of doing so intelligently.

If any physicist, or astronomer, of firstclass acumen and training should chance to take up the volume, it might interest him to be told in advance that a good many conceptions which are current in scientific text-books are called in question as being untenable; but he would be pleased to note, and especially he would be able keenly to appreciate, the facts and arguments cited from his brethren to justify the objections in every instance. Certain assumptions of the Kinetic Theory of Gases, and of the Doctrine of the Conservation of Energy, the notions of Surface Tension and Latent Heat, the conception of a frictionless region for atomic and molecular activities, and Sir Isaac Newton’s conclusion that no force from behind is needed to drive the planets along their orbital courses, may be mentioned to intimate to such a reader the kind of hypothesis herein restudied. But in showing such conceptions to involve errors, just discriminations have been attempted, and due recognition has been awarded to those investigators whose findings have rendered saner conclusions attainable. There is neither lack of respect for so-called “scientific authority,” nor cringing in its presence.

The work is elementary in the sense that it deals with elementary substances and essences, and makes no attempt to treat them exhaustively. A single line of thought is pursued throughout; and, therefore, the components of Nature are viewed in a few special aspects. A view is had to the larger significance of the ascertained facts of the sciences. Naturalists, biologists, physicists and astronomers are setting themselves and one another upon a saner tack for avoiding entanglements heretofore encountered in the Saragossa Sea they are trying to navigate, where the weeds afloat are hypotheses; and one aim of the work is, to tauten a little of the rigging for the setting of this tack. Another aim is, to contribute something toward the emancipation of that large class of persons who are in an intellectual chain-gang, where the fetter of their thralldom is scientific authority. If it is a boon to have religious liberty in our thinking, it is none the less a blessing of freedom to have our own ideas and opinions about the phenomena of the universe. To merely float on the Gulf Stream of current philosophy, is to drift inevitably towards the frigid region of agnosticism and anarchy; and it is needful for the thoughtful people of this age to make a new declaration of independence; that is, of intellectual independence, to avoid a trend which the facts of science do not warrant. An appeal to reason is made against this trend.

The philosopher, Henri Bergson, of the College of France, has compared modern scientific observations to moving pictures, which are obtained by cinematographic machines. To elaborate this notion somewhat beyond his inten- ” tion, the motion films exhibit series of acts which appear to be continuously successive; but, in fact, there are intervals of time between the acts shown, and it is quite possible, by means of a duplex machine devised to make exposures alternately, to show on separate films those acts which occur in the intervals. Supposing two films to have been thus exposed, each would exhibit a true history of the movements of the objects photographed; but neither would exhibit a complete history thereof. Each would tell but half the truth. This illustrates why it is not necessary to deny the facts of science in making the statement that the showing of modern scientists is inadequate. At best our current philosophy consists of half-truths, accounts of partially understood phenomena, and scientifically exact misrepresentations of the processes of Nature.

Take, for instance, the laboratory representations of what sound waves do. Every component of these waves, as misrepresented in so-called photographs thereof, depends for its configuration upon the mechanism of the device by means of which the record is made. In one method of producing sonoriscripts a very thin diaphragm is suspended so as to be free to oscillate quite readily after the manner of a mariner’s compass, but with more delicate adjustment. Fixed by axial pins, say north and south, which impinge upon an enclosing ring, this ring similarly fixed at the points east and west, oscillations in all directions are made possible; but, conditioned by the fixed bearings, the chief oscillations will be to north and south, and to east and west. Therefore, when a pencil of light is directed to a photographic film, or to a screen, by the oscillations of the diaphragm, its tracery will be shown in lines mainly in horizontal and vertical directions. The vertical lines will lie further apart in proportion to the speed with which the film is made to move behind the shutter of the camera. Besides, at the end of each lilt, in the halt before the succeeding lilt, the exposure will be of longer duration than at other points along the lines of the tracery, producing an effect due rather to the inertia of the diaphragm than to the impact of sonorous waves. But the sonorous pulses are propagated in all directions from the source of the sound, and their effect in the sensorium of the listener, in the absence of resistance or causes of reaction, will be the same at any point in any direction within audible range. Therefore, the total result of the experiment must be but a partial record of the sonorous pulses, plus the record of the limitations of the machine.

In every field of science allowance must always be made for the imperfections of instrumental equipment and for other sources of error; and, therefore, very many of the determinations arrived at with the utmost care on the part of the most renowned experimenters in chemistry, physics, and astronomy, are but close approximations, as is well known by all specialists. This is not meant to minimize the value of laboratory equipment. It is indispensable and invaluable. But the intimation is that the end is not yet, and that the psychological moment has not arrived for the final trumpet-blast which is to herald the last scientific judgment. Even if the facts were all in and verified, the final conclusions to be reached from them would be still a long way off, as is indicated by the wide differences of the hypotheses entertained, and by the tentative way in which they are held.

At a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held recently in Cleveland, in closing his vice-presidential address, Mr. Robt. A. Millikan, after reviewing the latest conceptions of physicists “On Unitary Theories in Physics,” said, and was loudly applauded for saying: “In conclusion, then, there is at present no quantum theory which has as yet been shown to be at all consistent with all the experimental facts now before us; and yet, it looks as though some kind of atomistic theory of radiation had to come. Certainly, never in the history of the world has physics offered greater tasks to her followers than she now offers; and never were more and better brains needed for the accomplishment of these tasks. It may be that thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this.”

There is a note of appeal, if not of warning, in that beautiful verse of Esther from which his quotation is taken, to-wit, “If thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time.” Who knows but that these words may have nerved him for his sweeping assailment of current hypotheses in his special department of science? Anyway, at whatever risks there may be, surely every one who has a suggestion of possible value to offer, should venture into the Court of General Intelligence and should make his plea for an audience, though he may never be permitted to touch the top of the golden scepter.

b NcCORMICK THEOL. SEA.

I. Tue ETHER OF SPACE

“The Ether of Space” is a cumbersome name for the all-pervading, subtile essence now believed by physicists to be the medium of inter-planetary effects. The qualifying words are employed to distinguish it from sulphuric ether, but ordinarily “the ether” suffices. The word in both uses is derived from the Greek word aither, which was the name of the atmosphere of the gods; and, by the adoption of it to designate an extremely attenuated and refined element, the scientists have paid a pretty compliment to the Greeks, if not also to their deities.

Like its associate essence, electricity, it has but recently become known to mankind; and in connection with each the sayings are being verified, “The last shall be first,’ and “The greatest of all shall be the servant of all.” Since they have become our ministering domestics and their names are household words everywhere, it is desirable that their nature and the manner of the performance of their functions should be better understood by all those whom they serve. 25

So subtile is the ether, we can never have the mediate knowledge of it through the sense organs which we have of the common objects about us. Even conceding that things apprehended by the senses are immediately known, it will still be true that we can never know by immediate perception that the ether exists. Yet, we may be so certain of its existence as to consider it a real and indispensable means of our own existence. For through its agency both light and heat are transmitted to our planet from the sun. Like life, for instance, the life of a lily, or of a canary, it makes itself known to us through its effects; and these effects must take place in other elements arranged into a system apart from our own organism, of which electricity must be a component, itself an essence we can not perceive immediately.

The manifestation of life in the plant and in the bird, observed in normal action and then suddenly seen to cease entirely, though all other essential parts of the organism remain intact, suggest to the thoughtful mind the presence of a something potential, though intangible, to account for the manifestations. Probably the first, and certainly one of the easiest, discoveries of the kind was that of the wind, which can not be seen, though it is breathed, and can be felt. It is no wonder that the primitive notion of life was that it consists of the breath. In both Greek and Latin the words for the wind are the words for spirit; for “the breath of life” is a very ancient notion. It survives in our phrase “to expire,” meaning the giving up of life with the breath. But, in spite of lingering false notions, people of all races early became convinced that life is different from the wind. The Greeks made the distinction (pneuma zootikon and pneuma psykikon) between lower and higher kinds of life in the animal kingdom. Their discovery was of the order of our modern discovery of the ether.

First, men of science noticed that solids can be permeated by liquids without any displacement of parts or impairment of structure. Then it was found that liquids are permeated by gas without increasing their volume. The hypothetical conclusion was reached that the particles of solids and liquids are not in immediate contact, and that not even the atoms com-~ posing molecules are ever in immediate contact. Naturally. the question was finally mooted, By what is the interstitial space within matter occupied?

One of the greatest thinkers of the seventeenth century, Robert Hooke, in discussing the essence of matter, compared what he considered the densest and heaviest with the rarest and lightest of all substances; namely, gold with the ether. He described the latter as “the substance that fills the cavity of an exhausted vessel, or cavity of the glass of a barometer above the quicksilver.” Then he proposed to prove that “this cavity is more full, or a more dense body of ether, in the common sense or acceptation of the word, than gold is of gold, bulk for bulk.” He argued that “vacuity, as it is commonly thought, or erroneously supposed, is a more dense body than gold as gold.”

Sir Isaac Newton, a contemporary of Hooke, who philosophized and wrote later in the century, noticed that heat affects a thermometer in a vacuum almost as readily as when not in a vacuum; and he at once raised the question, “Is not the heat of the warm room conveyed through the vacuum by the vibrations of a much subtler medium than air, which, after the air is drawn out, remains in the vacuum?” Then the further questions, “Is not this medium the same with that medium by which light is transmitted, and by whose vibrations light communicates heat to bodies? And doth it not pervade all bodies? And is it not, by its elastic force, expanded through all the heavens?”

Another of Newton’s surmises appears -to have been made with Hooke’s hypothesis in mind, for he asks, “May not planets and comets, and all gross bodies, perform their motions more freely and with less resistance in this zthereal medium than in any fluid, which fills all space adequately without any pores, and by consequence is much denser than quicksilver and gold?” |