177 
 V4 
 
 CO 
 
 CvJ 
 CD 
 CD 
 
 CJ 
 
OCCASIONAL SCIENTIFIC PAPERS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 WESTWOOD ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY 
 NUMBER 2. 
 
 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER: 
 
 (I) ITS RELATION TO THE ELECTRON AND TO 
 
 A UNIVERSAL INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM; 
 
 (II) ITS RELATION TO THE ATOM 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANK W. VERY 
 
 BOSTON: THE FOUR SEAS COMPANY 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
By Frank W. Very 
 
 OCCASIONAL SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF THE WESTWOOD 
 ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY: NUMBER I 
 
 LUNAR AND TERRESTRIAL ALBEDOES 
 
OCCASIONAL SCIENTIFIC PAPERS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 WESTWOOD ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY 
 NUMBER 2. 
 
 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER: 
 
 (I) ITS RELATION TO THE ELECTRON AND TO 
 
 A UNIVERSAL INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM; 
 
 (II) ITS RELATION TO THE ATOM 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANK W. VERY 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 THE FOUR SEAS COMPANY 
 1919 
 
The Four Seas Press 
 Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 
 
HISTORICAL NOTE 
 
 This paper was presented in abstract at the twenty-second 
 meeting of the American Astronomical Society at Harvard 
 College Observatory, August 20, 1918, and is here reprinted in 
 full from the New-Church Review for October, 1918 (Vol. 
 XXV, pages 528 to 5/6). It is an elaboration of a view put 
 forth in my critique and appreciation of Swedenborg's Prin- 
 cipia which appeared in the same publication in April and July, 
 1913 (Vol. XX, pages 161 to 197, and 392 to 436), where a 
 return to Swedenborg's scientific doctrine of a limited ether, 
 and of light as consisting of discrete vibrating ether-particles, 
 was advocated. The present paper includes much additional 
 material, especially in respect to the connection of the ether 
 with a fundamental electronic unit and the universal medium 
 out of which both the electron and the ether-particle are sup- 
 posed to be formed. Incidentally, further details are included 
 from my papers on the cause and limitation of gravitation 
 which have not, as yet, been published elsewhere. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER: (I) ITS RELA- 
 TION TO THE ELECTRON AND TO A 
 UNIVERSAL INTERSTELLAR 
 MEDIUM. 
 
 THERE has arisen at the present time a new doctrine 
 which declares that there is no ether, or universal 
 atmosphere consecrated to the propagation of 
 luminous waves, but that light consists of discrete "quanta" 
 of luminous energy, thrown off from vibrating electrons 
 and originating in their disturbed motion. This proposi- 
 tion appears to be well founded; but it does not therefore 
 do away with the necessity for a universal medium, though 
 this medium should no longer be called "the luminiferous 
 ether." I have adopted for the universal interstellar atmos- 
 phere the name of "aura," a term which I have borrowed 
 from Swedenborg, who uses it sometimes to designate a 
 universal atmosphere, a "purer ether," assigning to it in 
 the end a gravitational function, and placing it as an ante- 
 cedent to the light-bearing ether. 
 
 While the universal aura, or "ether of space," as Sir 
 Oliver Lodge calls it, has no mass, the case is different 
 with the electrically organized "ether," of which Sir J. J. 
 Thomson in his "Electricity and Matter" has said: "All 
 mass is mass of the ether, all momentum, momentum of 
 the ether, and all kinetic energy, kinetic energy of the 
 ether." Here, however, he points out that "the concentra- 
 tion of the lines of force on the small negative bodies the 
 'corpuscles' [or electrons] is so great that practically 
 the whole of the bound ether is localized around these 
 bodies" ; and this follows because the energy per unit vol- 
 ume in the magnetic field of the moving electrons dimin- 
 ishes in proportion to the inverse fourth power of the 
 
 7 
 
8 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 distance.* This alone shows that gravitation can not re- 
 side in the electrically bound ether, since the efficacy of 
 gravitative force is related to the inverse square of the 
 distance ; nor can gravitation depend upon the mere revolu- 
 tions of the electrons, though these, if uncompensated, 
 may generate an atomic magnetic field. On this account 
 and because the magnitudes of the electric and gravitational 
 forces are of a totally different order, we are driven to 
 seek for some mechanism for gravitation different from 
 the disturbance produced by a simple electronic revolution 
 per se. 
 
 It is assumed by Thomson that his corpuscles are spheres. 
 It does not appear possible that electrons can have the ring- 
 vortex form which Lord Kelvin assigned to his vortex- 
 atoms; for these could not unite into vortex filaments, or 
 unite in any way except by two neighbors alternately 
 threading each the other periodically. 
 
 *William Sutherland has considered the reason for this law in 
 an article on "The Electric Origin .of Molecular Attraction" 
 (Philosophical Magazine, Ser. 6, Vol. IV, p. 625, December, 1902). 
 "The theory of magnetism familiarizes us with an inverse fourth- 
 power fprce between magnets at distances great compared with 
 their lengths. In applying this known magnetic result to account 
 tor molecular attraction, we are at the outset confronted with 
 the difficulty that in the case of magnets the force is as often 
 repulsive as attractive, the nature of the force depending on the 
 relative direction of polarities in the magnets, whereas the molec- 
 ular forces required to account for cohesion must be preponder- 
 atingly attractive." On further examination, however, he finds 
 that "the attractive forces by their own operation tend to increase 
 themselves, while the repulsive forces tend to decrease them- 
 selves." Thus if neighboring magnets, or electric doublets ap- 
 proach each other, the "axes tend to, take the same direction, and 
 therefore on this account they exercise a stronger attraction on 
 one another; and also because attracting forces varying inversely 
 as the fourth power of the distance produce motion which in- 
 creases their strength, there are two causes which make the at- 
 tractive forces amongst a number of moving doublets of more 
 dynamical importance than the repulsive." The applicability of 
 the law to any medium rests upon the magnetic properties of its 
 least constituents. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 9 
 
 Swedenborg's "ethereal particle" was also supposed to 
 be spherical, and was thus fitted to receive all kinds of 
 vibration without distinction. "The ethereal particles thus 
 formed can subsist under any form of motion and with 
 perfect aptitude to it" (Principia, Part III, Chap. V, No. 
 6.) But more noteworthy was his conception of a peculiar 
 sort of vortex-particle, to which we shall return, having a 
 structure of such a nature that similarly rotating particles 
 may unite into vortex filaments. Such a structure lends 
 itself admirably to the explanation of several phenomena, 
 such as the polarization of the magnetic medium under the 
 influence of an electric circuit, and leads especially to an 
 idea of the way in which ether-particles are formed by 
 electrons out of the aura through the aid of forces in this 
 medium; and as if foreseeing such a relation, though there 
 were then few facts on which to base it, Swedenborg as- 
 signed an ethereal origin to electricity as well as light, and 
 had a vague idea of a distinction between "warm and cold 
 light," or, as we should now say, between the radiation of 
 a heated body and electrically produced luminescence, link- 
 ing the "cold light" with electricity. He also assigned both 
 a vibratory and a corpuscular nature to his luminous 
 "ethereal particle," thus combining the Newtonian and 
 Huyghenian hypotheses a view to which we are in a fair way 
 to return.* After several speculations of this sort, he restrains 
 himself with the words: "Much more might be said, but which 
 I omit, as I have no experiments to prove my statements." 
 
 The vortical form in question was assigned to a particle 
 of the magnetic medium. It had a rational basis in the fact 
 of the obvious existence of vortex motion in that medium, 
 as revealed in the magnetic phantom; and some of its prop- 
 erties have seemed to be too valuable to be laid on the shelf 
 of unverified hypothesis. There is an opportunity for a 
 resuscitation and modification of this scheme today. From 
 the same mine of suggestions, now happily capable of a 
 
 *For a fuller account of this subject, see my "Prevision of 
 Scientific Progress." Boston: B. A. Whittemore, 1914. 
 
io THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 certain amount of confirmation by experiment, I think we 
 may borrow, with some modifications, a working plan of 
 an atom. 
 
 Let us assume that there is around an electron a con- 
 densation of the aura in which its electric properties reside; 
 that the electron both rotates on an axis and also pulsates 
 with a radial, regular, and uniform motion at all points of 
 its surface, being urged to this motion by an internal resil- 
 ience; and that its shape is that of an approximate sphere 
 with a central core, for which a reason will be given later. 
 The electron is incapable of further compression, but is 
 surrounded by its own ethereal "atmosphere" in which the 
 pressure diminishes outwardly at a very rapid rate. During 
 steady motion, this atmosphere moves with the electron 
 and virtually forms a part of it; but the adhesion is so 
 slight that under sudden shock the envelope is stript off 
 and becomes a spherical ethereal particle which pulsates and 
 oscillates within limits, but does not rotate. The naked 
 electron immediately takes to itself a new atmosphere 
 formed out of the illimitable aura, and may almost imme- 
 diately lose its garment again at the next shock. Thus a 
 single electron can undergo a succession of shocks which 
 generate a series of ether-corpuscles, each with a different, 
 but harmonically related variety of vibration, which could 
 not happen if the electron as a whole were immediately 
 converted into an ether-corpuscle. 
 
 Professor W. H. Bragg, who was the first to indicate 
 the probable corpuscular nature of the Rontgen rays, sug- 
 gested that "an electron of given energy may be converted 
 into a light-quantum of equal energy and vice versa." This 
 at first seemed a permissible interpretation of the experi- 
 mental evidence; but now that it is known that the X-rays 
 carry with them the peculiar vibrations of the electrons 
 characteristic of the atoms composing the anti-cathode ', it 
 becomes evident that this is not an immediate conversion 
 of electrons in the cathode stream into ether, but that the 
 electrons from the cathode are absorbed by the target and 
 in this process they produce disturbances in the electrons 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER n 
 
 and the ether already attached to its atoms. The electron 
 therefore preserves its identity, and is associated with the 
 ether, rather than converted into it. 
 
 The ether-particle thus formed is a sphere of the same 
 size as the eleck-on. Its pulsation gives it mass which, 
 together with its onward motion, causes it to have momen- 
 tum. Its oscillation gives it alternating positive and nega- 
 tive electric sign and a reciprocating magnetic field, the 
 whole constituting a least quantum of electro-magnetic 
 energy. Because the electrons everywhere repel each other, 
 and because radiation is an affair of surfaces, the emission 
 of radiant ether by any portion of matter, from its origin, 
 takes the form of a spherical wave. 
 
 Conjoined with its electron, the ether-particle may be 
 said to have had a previous existence of a relatively 
 quiescent sort, but as a free entity it necessarily moves on- 
 ward with the velocity of light, carrying with it its own 
 invariable quantum of energy. Consequently, the energy 
 of radiation is measured by the number of ether-particles 
 in the unit of volume. This follows from Planck's epochal 
 discovery that the radiant quantum is a fundamental con- 
 stant of nature. Eventually, the ether-particle, which has 
 been formed out of the aura, is re-absorbed by the medium ; 
 but because the frictional resistance of the aura is very 
 minute, the progress of absorption is excessively slow. 
 
 The Assumption that the Ether-Particle is derived from 
 an Electronic Envelope. A fundamental difference be- 
 tween a free ether-particle and an electron is that the latter 
 rotates on an axis, and has polarity, but the former does not 
 rotate and, having a perfectly spherical surface, is thereby 
 free to take up any form of oscillation and transmit it with 
 complete identity as to all of its phases. 
 
 The electrons which issue from the cathode of an X-ray 
 tube, strike the atoms of the target; whereupon certain 
 electrons attached to these atoms have the rotations of their 
 envelopes transformed into a rocking motion, and the 
 stripped-off envelopes proceed as vibrating ether-corpuscles ; 
 for the X-rays, no less than the luminous rays, are 
 
12 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 corpuscular "quanta" of radiant energy, characterized by 
 an extraordinary rapidity of vibration, , which, since it 
 originates in an electronic oscillation, I conceive to be an 
 oscillatory vibration. 
 
 An advancing electron, moving in the direction of its 
 axis, produces by its rotation and carries along with it a 
 vortex-filament of the aura which is the electron's magnetic 
 field, due to its motion and made up of circular "lines of 
 magnetic force", or currents of minute size in the adjoining 
 aura, concentric with the axis of the electron. Sir J. J. 
 Thomson supposes that the electron is also accompanied 
 by radial vortex-filaments which are its electric lines of 
 force; and that when the velocity in the axial direction in- 
 creases, these lines crowd towards the equatorial plane thus 
 giving greater resistance to motion, or greater "inertia." 
 According to my present proposition, the steady orbital 
 motion of the electrons within the atom is always substan- 
 tially in the direction of their axes of rotation, but at speeds 
 much less than that of light. 
 
 If the lines of electric force about an electron are vortex- 
 filaments, this would seem to imply that the magnetic aura 
 is itself composed of particles still smaller than the elec- 
 trons, which are also rotating and which become polarized, 
 or arranged in radial filaments under the strain in the 
 medium set up by the rotation of the electron, perhaps 
 combined with some other form of motion. This suggests 
 that electrical attractions and repulsions may be associated 
 with the rotations of the electrons, attended by vortices in 
 the aura, but that gravity originates from waves of longi- 
 tudinal vibration in the aura (the counterpart of sound 
 waves in the air) produced by the rapidly alternating ex- 
 pansion and contraction of the electrons. This explanation 
 requires that there must be a perpetual elastic action and 
 reaction in alternation between the inner contents of the 
 spherical electrons and the volume of aura which fills an 
 "aural cell," at an electronic surface of transition which 
 is not far from spherical and of fixed dimensions deter- 
 mined by some property of the aura yet to be investigated. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 13 
 
 On the supposition that an electron is a rotating sphere, 
 or near sphere, of aura when translated at moderate speed, 
 it does not follow that the shape will be retained at higher 
 speeds. More probably any accentuation of the progressive 
 motion will be accompanied by increased resistance with 
 transition from a sphere to an oblate spheroid, and final 
 dissipation by centrifugal force if the speed were to exceed 
 the velocity of light, for which the resistance would be 
 infinite with the lines of electric force compressed into an 
 infinitely thin sheet. But a spherical particle of ether which 
 is without any rotation, moves at once with the velocity of 
 light by virtue of the properties of the aura out of which 
 the ether is made. I shall show further on that the elec- 
 tronic rotation is so rapid that the shape is probably not 
 merely spheroidal, but is that of an annulus or cored vortex- 
 ring. 
 
 The electric field of an electron is therefore made up of 
 static radial lines of strain in the aura, which are accom- 
 panied by a magnetic field of kinetic lines of flow when- 
 ever the electron advances, both together constituting a 
 consistent electro-magnetic dynamic system in the aura. 
 
 Just as the larger Faraday tubes of electric force 
 between oppositely electrified bodies are composed of 
 stretched chains of polarized atoms, where the individual 
 members of the chain are kept in connection by streams of 
 moving electrons, so the finer threads of electric force about 
 the electrons, repeating the structure on a smaller scale, 
 require chains of still finer polarized particles of the aura, 
 the entire electric system comprising three orders of mag- 
 nitude, namely, atoms, electrons, magnetons. Here, how- 
 ever, by an alternation of properties which seems to be in- 
 evitable in the relation and connection of these different 
 orders of magnitude, the connecting lines of the aura are 
 not lines of flow, but are made up of rotating magnetons 
 held together by magnetic attraction; for all the properties 
 of the aura, as a whole and as to its least units, are mag- 
 netic. The magnetons lend themselves as naturally to 
 rotations as the electrons do to the How of electric current. 
 
14 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 Thus the normal motion of an unrestrained electron is a rec- 
 tilinear electric flow, carrying with it always an accompanying 
 orbital circulation of magnetons. The latter is the magnetic 
 field due to the progressive motion of the electron, while any 
 magnetically originated flux is, first of all, either a circulation 
 or a rotation of magnetons which constrains the electrons to 
 flow according to their own peculiar mode. 
 
 According to Sir J. J. Thomson's view, X-rays, and there- 
 fore we may now say all luminous rays, since it has become 
 obvious that there is no distinction of form between the two, 
 are propagated rectilineally as kinks in a universally present, 
 system of ether tubes. But a discrepancy immediately ap- 
 pears, because, as we have seen, the ethereal structure "is 
 localized," according to the same authority, and is by no means 
 universal. 
 
 But Bragg has shown that the X-rays are probably of a 
 corpuscular nature equally with the cathode rays, and since 
 the electrons disappear in producing X-rays, while the latter, 
 in turn, are capable of "generating," or more probably of 
 setting free electrons anew, since the light-rays, when they 
 meet an electronic system which can execute the same rhythm, 
 or dance to the same tune, are absorbed, and the energy of the 
 light is communicated to the electronic system, it seems fairly 
 demonstrated that electrons and ether-corpuscles are structural- 
 ly connected; and that they are identical as to magnitude is 
 very probable, the chief difference between them being the 
 presence or absence of axial rotation. 
 
 In regard to Thomson's fibrous ether, Professor Millikan, 
 in his book on "The Electron" (p. 230), raises the objec- 
 tion that "When we maintain the field constant and vary 
 the charge on the drop [of liquid to which an electron is 
 attached, where the motion of the suspended drop is con- 
 trolled by the electric field], the granular structure of 
 electricity is proved by the discontinuous changes in the 
 velocity, but when we maintain the charge constant and 
 vary the field, the lack of discontinuous change in the 
 velocity disproves the contention of a fibrous structure in 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 15 
 
 the field, unless the assumption be made that there are an 
 enormous number of ether strings ending in one electron." 
 This seems to him improbable, but perhaps the ethereal 
 envelope, attached to an*electron, has an analogous struc- 
 ture formed out of the aura. If the aura is composed of 
 polar particles which are minute in respect to the size of 
 an electron, the radial filaments of polarized magnetons, 
 attached to an electron and which constitute its electric 
 field, are very numerous, fulfilling Professor Millikan's 
 proviso in this respect; and if the convergence of these 
 vortex-filaments is what produces the surface condensa- 
 tion to balance the relatively enormous centrifugal force 
 of the whirling electron, they act like so many compressed 
 springs. 
 
 The shaking off of the electronic envelope gives to the 
 ether-particle thus formed an oscillatory springiness and 
 provides it with an analogous system of vortex filaments 
 by which it takes hold of the aura in transit, or else has its 
 energy transferred to a new electron upon absorption. A 
 considerable amount of energy becomes latent in the gen- 
 eration of an ether-corpuscle and is not included in the 
 "radiant energy" which it conveys. This energy of forma- 
 tion is derived from the constitutional energy of the elec- 
 tron, and is proportional to the frequency of the luminous 
 vibration, but not to the radiant intensity. This, it seems 
 to me, is the meaning of Einstein's equation: 
 
 where h is Planck's energy-constant, e is the charge on an 
 electron, ^F is the change of the electrical potential, and 
 Av is the corresponding range of frequency, the higher 
 frequency requiring a correspondingly greater electric 
 potential for its production. Lenard's discovery (Annalen 
 der Physik, (4), Bd. VIII, S. 149, 1902) that in the photo- 
 electric effect, the energy with which electrons are thrown 
 off from a metal on exposure to ultra-violet light is wholly 
 independent of the intensity of the light, requires that there 
 
1 6 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 must be an independent source of energy which is pre- 
 sumably structural. This structural energy of the ether 
 was originally derived from the electrons, and may be 
 returned to them. 
 
 The ether-corpuscle is a distinct entity, but it has a 
 structure which has extension into a surrounding field of 
 potential energy; and once organized, this structure can 
 experience vicissitudes which are the "radiant energy" of 
 the combination. 
 
 Distinction between Radiation from Satellite Electrons 
 and from those of the Nucleus. For a uniform revolution 
 of electrons in an orbit, with a constant radius vector, there 
 is no acceleration and no production of electro-magnetic 
 radiation. The latter arises through perturbations which 
 change the radius vector of the orbit, just as a uniform 
 electric current in a conducting wire produces no induced 
 current, but the latter arises when the first current is made 
 or broken, thus as a result of a sudden change of current. 
 Similarly, the removal of a satellite electron takes place 
 by a series of jumps from one stable orbit to another, each 
 explosive dislocation of the uniform orbital motion and 
 substitution of a new orbit producing a radiant vibration 
 of a special wave-length; and a succession of such disloca- 
 tions causes a series of discrete, but harmonically related 
 vibrations appertaining to a set of associated orbital dis- 
 tances and constituting a spectral series. 
 
 On the other hand, thermal shocks arising in the inter- 
 relations of the molecules in a solid or liquid, or in a highly 
 condensed gas, and which are powerful enough to affect 
 the entire spherical shell of electrons of the nucleus of an 
 atom, produce continuous changes in adjoining electronic 
 orbits distributed in parallel over the surface of the 
 spherical shell. Thus if the nucleus of the atom expands, 
 all of the nuclear orbits enlarge. The combination of ex- 
 panding orbits is like an ever varying spiral motion with 
 a continually changing radius vector. Whatever shocks 
 these electrons of the general atomic sphere receive will 
 generate a whole range of gradually varying frequencies 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 17 
 
 giving rise to a continuous spectrum. Hence the continuous 
 spectrum of a radiating solid must be attributed wholly to the 
 vibrating nuclei of its atoms, consisting each of thousands or 
 tens of thousands of electrons. As a rule (with a few partial 
 exceptions as in the case of erbium, etc.) there are no linear 
 intensifications in such spectra, that is, the satellite electrons 
 play such a subordinate part in the transformation that their 
 periods are not in evidence. The nuclear perturbations are a 
 function of the body's thermal state. On the contrary, elec- 
 trically produced luminescence arises from disturbances which 
 affect the satellite electrons, and which do not necessarily touch 
 the electrons of the nuclear sphere. The bright-line lumi- 
 nescence spectrum may proceed from comparatively cool 
 material. Somewhat similar to this is the radiant emission of 
 the firefly, where considerable radiation of short wave-length 
 in the form of a broad spectral band, which if it were thermally 
 produced would correspond to a temperature of several 
 thousand degrees, is actually given off at the temperature of 
 the living body without the corresponding infra-red rays of 
 much greater total power which are ordinarily associated with 
 low-temperature emission. This was determined by direct 
 spectro-bolometric observations of the entire energy-spectrum 
 from the visible rays through the infra-red.* 
 
 The Dual Aspect of the Rotating Electrons becomes the 
 Ultimate Origin of the "Two Electricities." The proposed 
 hypothesis of the internal structure of an atom assumes 
 that the atom consists solely of electrons revolving in 
 orbits, that there is but one sort of electron, though it has 
 two aspects, because it is a rotating spherical mass, or 
 what is more likely, a cored vortex, or near-sphere, of the 
 universal medium, and has a definite volume and rotational 
 energy determined by the properties of this medium. 
 There is but one known sort of electron, and if the fore- 
 going definition be accepted there can be no other. The 
 
 *See Langley and Very, "The Cheapest Form of Light," 
 American Journal of Science, Vol. XL, p. 97, August, 1890. 
 
i8 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 hypothetical "positive electron" has never been isolated 
 simply because it does not exist. The conception needs but 
 a few minor details to make it perfectly definite and simple. 
 It remains only to trace the consequences of these assump- 
 tions, and here there is room for much variety in the 
 compounding of motions. Whatever atomic scheme is 
 proposed, however, must conform in its results and prop- 
 erties to certain well established physical and chemical 
 facts. The chemical and spectroscopic facts are already 
 well on the road towards explanation through the 
 hypotheses in respect to the orbits of satellite electrons 
 which are accepted today. Naught but the nucleus need be 
 considered here. 
 
 An aggregation of electrons which all have the same 
 electric properties will evidently tend to expand by the 
 mutual repulsion of the several entities, and will be dis- 
 persed unless controlled by some form of consentaneous 
 motion which shall overcome this dispersive tendency. 
 Given some mode of limiting the dispersal, the mutual 
 repulsion of the parts will nevertheless tend to distribute 
 them into a spherical shell. Hence an atom composed of 
 electrons probably has the form of a hollow sphere, and 
 must necessarily possess an even number of layers arranged 
 in pairs with opposite electrification. 
 
 The electron itself has an analogous structure, since it is 
 a spherical vortex by close approximation, as we shall see, 
 formed from the aura by rotation and condensed at the 
 surface where it sustains the whole pressure of the aura 
 by the centrifugal force of this rotation, but rarefied within. 
 
 The interior of the atom is filled with aura, that is, the 
 entire atom is an electronic and ethereal structure finited 
 by motion out of the aura; and the aura itself (except in 
 the immediate vicinity of the electrons) passes freely 
 through the interstices of the structure and serves to 
 nourish it, to animate it with energy ( for the aura is a 
 great reservoir of energy), and to govern and define the 
 modes and properties of the structure. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 19 
 
 In 1903 Eichenwald repeated Rowland's experiment with 
 modifications, by causing an electrified glass disk, coated on 
 both faces with metal, to revolve. If the dielectric carries 
 the magnetic aura along with it, there should be compensa- 
 tion between the dielectric and metallic influences upon the 
 aura, and an absence of magnetic effect. But the magnetic 
 effect was found, which proves that the aura is immobile 
 in respect to the motion of matter through it. The sun 
 and planets are not floating in the aura which immediately 
 surrounds them, like corks in a stream of water. If the 
 universal magnetic medium flows through matter, or is not 
 set in motion by the motion of matter in material progres- 
 sions, the medium may nevertheless suffer a slight retarda- 
 tion in the vicinity of the matter. This will have the effect 
 of a condensation of the aura. It is not necessary that the 
 general motion of the aura shall coincide with that of 
 the matter which is contained within the same volume of 
 space; for the matter takes hold of an immense volume 
 of aura by its gravitational lines of force and is thus con- 
 nected with and controlled by the general aural movement, 
 but is independent of the aural movement in the immediate 
 vicinity. Thus the aura moves in its own vast galactic 
 sweep and exercises a large-scale, or general control over 
 the movements of matter, but is independent, or as if im- 
 mobile to its lesser motions. 
 
 The "Saturnian Atom" and the "Moseley Number." 
 The spherical surface of the atom may be deformed into 
 an oblate spheroid by a sufficiently rapid translation in the 
 direction of the atomic axis, but any marked distortion 
 from a symmetrical form would lead to a breaking up of 
 the atom. Such distortion, however, becomes difficult if 
 the electrons are in exceedingly rapid orbital revolution. 
 It is supposed by Bohr that certain electrons occupy a cir- 
 cumferential position, arranged in rings about the nucleus 
 in a common plane so as to have some analogy with the 
 rings of Saturn, whence the arrangement has been called 
 the "Saturnian atom," that they are thus revolving in orbits 
 around a central nucleus, and that the frequencies of line 
 
20 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 spectra are determined by perturbations of these satellite 
 revolutions. It is also known that the atom contains an 
 enormous amount of energy which is invariable except in 
 radio-active disruption of the atom. I assume that this inner 
 invariable energy of atomic constitution is that of still other 
 orbital electronic revolutions of great velocity within a 
 central nucleus in which resides by far the larger part of 
 the mass, and whose stability is far greater than that of the 
 satellite orbits. The latter are relatively few, and we may 
 assume that their number is that of the Moseley number, 
 characteristic of each element, which varies between i for 
 hydrogen and 92 for uranium. For the moment we may 
 leave in abeyance the question whether the orbits of the 
 characteristic electrons which give the Rontgen rays of 
 the K series are within or outside of the nucleus. For 
 illustration assume them to be inside. Presumably in this 
 case the satellite system of hexavalent uranium is composed 
 of six concentric rings of electrons, composed successively 
 from the inmost to the outmost ring of 
 
 6, n, 15, 1 8, 20, 22 = 92 satellites. 
 
 This gives the number six to the inner ring in agreement 
 with the valency. 
 
 The nuclear electrons, on the other hand, reach into the 
 thousands (uranium, about 439,000), and the mass of 
 the atom is practically that of its nucleus. This implies 
 that the electron is the fundamental gravitational unit, 
 and that its power of gravitational attraction is independent 
 of its position in the atom, though the resultant inertia is 
 connected with the gyrostatic properties of the revolving 
 and rotating electrons. 
 
 Origin of the Gravitational Impulse. The remaining 
 problem is to find a mode of electronic interaction, diverse 
 from the electrical one, which is capable of producing a 
 gravitational impulse, and one which shall not only not 
 endanger, but which shall conduce to the stability of the 
 atom. Stability may conceivably be maintained electrically, 
 if this were all, by the juxtaposition of two concentric 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 21 
 
 spherical shells of electrons revolving in parallel circular 
 strands in the same direction and with the poles of the 
 electrons juxtaposed in the direction of the orbital motion 
 as aforesaid (since it is obvious that the planes of rotation 
 of the electrons must set themselves at right angles to the 
 directing attractive forces) forming as many superficial 
 circular vortex-filaments by their combined motions of 
 revolution and rotation; while the electronic rotations are 
 opposite on the inner and outer shells, giving to the mem- 
 bers of a pair of shells opposite electricities. Since the 
 inner shell is slightly the smaller of the two, we may sup- 
 pose that it has fewer electrons and that the satellite elec- 
 trons which agree in electric charge, or direction of axial 
 rotation, with those of the inner shell of the pair, are left 
 over and are needed to make up a number equal to the sum 
 of the electrons in the outer shell, thus providing for the 
 precise equalization of electric charges in the neutral atom. 
 
 It has been held by several theorists that gravity is of the 
 nature of a longitudinal wave of compression in a universal 
 medium. The simplest way to account for such a wave is 
 to suppose that the electrons are pulsating rapidly, that is, 
 that they alternately expand and contract equably on all 
 sides. I can not see that this will interfere in any way with 
 the simultaneous movements on which the electric and 
 magnetic properties of the atom depend, while the need of 
 a wholly independent origin for gravity seems obvious. 
 But for the urgent call for some working gravitational 
 hypothesis of a mechanical sort to complete the scheme 
 resulting from the new electronic conceptions, I should 
 have no wish to add one more suggestion to the rash, but 
 ambitious conjectures on this subject which have been 
 relegated to the mausoleum for dead whales in the depths 
 of the sea of knowledge. 
 
 If the foregoing hypothesis is to be accepted, it seems 
 necessary to distinguish clearly between inertia and mass. 
 An ether-particle may be pulsating like an electron and 
 may thus have mass, but it lacks inertia in its own right, 
 unless vibrating with an oscillatory motion and driven 
 
22 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 forth with the velocity of light as luminiferous ether. 
 Being assumed to possess "mass" in a certain limited sense, 
 we must ask in what way an atmosphere of bound ether 
 can be attached to, or condensed around the atoms. If the 
 bound ether were that of interatomic radiation, cold matter 
 should cease to refract which is not borne out by observa- 
 tion. The presence of bound ether is not manifested except 
 in so far as it is revealed in the refraction of light, where 
 the velocity of light in the denser transparent media is 
 slower because the "bound ether" which interpenetrates 
 their substance and is never absent whether the matter is 
 radiating or not, is denser, being more strongly attracted 
 by their heavier ultimate particles. Thus this shell of ether, 
 while held to the electrons by attraction, acts almost as if 
 emitted by them up to a certain compensating density, and 
 it is only flung off when some sudden change of orbital 
 motion occurs. The supposition that the shell is at once 
 reformed at the expense of the surrounding aura relieves 
 the dilemma arising from its continual loss in the genera- 
 tion of radiation. That there is an intimate relation be- 
 tween the refractive and the electric properties of matter 
 is because ether-corpuscles and electrons are also most 
 intimately related. 
 
 Nothing definite is known at present as to the nature of 
 static electric charges upon a solid body, though much is 
 known about the electrification of a gas. The beautiful 
 curled filamentary structure of certain high-tension elec- 
 trical discharges in air is presumably connected with the 
 viscosity of highly heated gases and a tendency to the for- 
 mation of complex aerial vortex-rings. The testimony of 
 the electrical stress-figures in resin obtained by J. W. 
 Swan,* where the positive stresses simulate motion under 
 attraction from every direction towards a center, and the 
 negative stresses suggest an attempt at the formation of 
 vortex-rings, or outgoing explosive puffs in a resistant 
 medium, can be interpreted on my present hypothesis 
 to mean that the electrons have poles of different sorts; 
 
 *Proc. Roy. Soc. London, Vol. LXII, p. 38, 1897. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 23 
 
 that there is an indrawing of aura through a central 
 core at one pole and outflow at the other pole ; that in posi- 
 tive electrification there is a superficial electric shell in 
 which the electrons are so placed as to have their indrawing 
 poles pointing outwards, while in negative electrification 
 the opposite poles are on the outside and there is outflow 
 towards the exterior; and that thus the distinction between 
 positive and negative electrification is that between right- 
 handed and left-handed rotations in the superficial electrons 
 which give the charge. Though the electrons forming the 
 static charge are exceedingly few compared with those 
 making the mass of the solid body, yet the electrical attrac- 
 tions of the charge are comparable with the gravitational 
 attractions of the entire mass. 
 
 Definite Statement and Illustration of the Electric Nature 
 of Matter. As a basis of atomic structure, let it be 
 assumed, then, that the atom is formed wholly of rotating, 
 revolving, and pulsating electrons, and that there is but 
 one kind of electron, which consists of a definite volume 
 of the universal medium in rapid rotation. This rotation of 
 the electron can be viewed in either of two aspects; and 
 two right-handed whirls with their equators in one plane 
 will repel each other if, when moving in opposite directions, 
 they meet and are forced into contact, thereafter assuming 
 opposite directions of motion at right angles to the original 
 line of approach. But right-handed and left-handed whirls, 
 that is, electrons which have opposite rotations, can have 
 their equators juxtaposed in the same plane and will 
 mutually attract each other. It follows that there are two 
 electricities which may be formed the one from the other 
 by a simple gyroscopic uptipping (at least in theory, what- 
 ever may be the obstacles to the change) ; and thus, in order 
 that there may be stable equilibrium, the positive electricity 
 in an atom must be closely conjoined with an equal amount 
 of negative electricity ; for as soon as one of the corpuscles 
 of the atom is set free, it becomes indistinguishable from 
 any other electron, whether coming from a positive or a 
 negative source. The loss or gain of even a single electron 
 
24 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 destroys electric equilibrium and converts an atom into a 
 positive or a negative ion with strong chemical affinity. 
 
 Next, since we have adopted the theory that the mass of 
 the atom is wholly electrical, it follows that a hydrogen 
 atom consists of 1,844 electrons,* this being the ratio of the 
 mass of a hydrogen atom to that of an electron. 
 
 According to Bohr's theory,f a hydrogen atom consists 
 of a single satellite electron in orbital revolution around a 
 central nucleus which has a positive charge, and with a 
 frequency of 3,290 million million revolutions per secondj 
 given by Lyman's measurement of the shortest wave-length 
 in the hydrogen spectrum. This may be accepted, but it is 
 not necessary to suppose that the nucleus is simple. Accord- 
 ing to the preceding supposition, the nucleus must consist 
 of 922 electrons rotating so as to give positive electric 
 charge (if they were disposed after the manner of a sur- 
 face charge), combined with 921 of the opposite rotation 
 which would give negative electrification if similarly dis- 
 posed, so that the two opposite charges existing in potency 
 are almost exactly neutralized, but with a small positive 
 residual which is the equivalent of the negative charge of 
 the satellite. 
 
 If the satellite revolves just outside the equatorial circle 
 of the nucleus, the positive charge of the outer layer pre- 
 
 *In his book, "The Universe and the Atom," Marion Erwin has 
 given an ingenious but complicated scheme of an atom which 
 accounts for the Balmer series in the spectrum of hydrogen very 
 well, but demands as a corollary that the hydrogen atom shall 
 contain precisely ( 12 ) 3 -|- 4= 1732 electrons. Millikan's latest result 
 for the mass of the electron, which has been obtained by methods 
 of extraordinary accuracy, definitely condemns this hypothesis. 
 Moreover, by an application of Kepler's laws to the electronic 
 revolutions in the atom, Millikan derives Rydberg's number N, or 
 the fundamental frequency constant, with an accuracy of one part 
 in one thousand, and thus not only gets the Balmer series, but 
 explains it in a remarkably si'mple way. 
 
 f Philosophical Magazine, Ser. 6, Vol. XXVI, p. i, July, 1913. 
 
 $See R. A. Millikan, Science, N. S., Vol. XLV, p. 327, April 6, 
 1917. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 25 
 
 vails sufficiently to direct the orbit of the satellite and to keep 
 it in the equatorial plane ; but stability requires that the satel- 
 lite's rotation shall assume the relation of negative electricity 
 to the outer shell of positive electricity and that the direction 
 of revolution shall be the same in both. They would also be 
 true if the extra electron were inside the atom,. All of the 
 revolutions must be congruous to avoid eventual disruption. 
 
 The satellite is relatively free, and it is the one electron 
 which may be easily displaced and lost to the atom, when the 
 nucleus thus stripped becomes a positive ion. The revolving 
 electron which has become free is, I repeat, like any other elec- 
 tron, simply because it is emitted from what we have agreed 
 to call the negative pole of a source of electric current; but 
 actually it has electric sign solely from its association with 
 other electrons. This becomes evident if we trace the conse- 
 quences of a meeting of a nominally "positive" ion which has 
 lost its satellite, with a neutral atom. Immediately, if the 
 revolutions of the electrons are congruous, the satellite of the 
 normal atom is shared by the two nuclei and serves to bind 
 them together into one molecule, forming the single bond of 
 chemical union. The normal, or neutral, atom behaves as if 
 it were negative in respect to the positive ion and there is the 
 electrical attraction of chemical affinity between them; though, 
 but for the shared electronic satellite, the two nuclei would be 
 mutually repellant from the similarity of their electric charges. 
 
 If a normal atom meets with another normal atom having 
 its orbital electronic revolutions facing the same way, can 
 the two unite into a molecule with two satellite electrons 
 either satellite being displaced towards the intermediate 
 plane parallel to the two equators, and perhaps coming into 
 equilibrium on opposite sides of a common orbit? Appar- 
 ently this is possible, but with diminished affinity owing 
 to a divided attraction.* Two normal hydrogen atoms with 
 
 *If H+ represents an atom of hydrogen which has lost a satellite 
 electron, and H- represents a hydrogen atom which still retains its 
 extra negative electron, the constitution which Bohr attributes to 
 the hydrogen molecule, namely, H_H_ (or the above problemati- 
 
26 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 congruous electronic orbits, placed on either side of a hydrogen 
 ion, make the unstable molecule (H 3 ) having two satellites, for 
 whose existence under favorable circumstances there is satis- 
 factory evidence. 
 
 Probable Explanation of the Thermal Periodicity of the 
 Elements. The theory of complex concentric vortices, 
 elaborated by Hicks, gives a possible explanation of some 
 of the thermal properties of the elements; but it rests upon 
 the hypothesis of a continuous irrotational fluid whose vorticity 
 changes at certain concentric surfaces within the atom, and 
 takes no account of discrete electrons, each a precise replica 
 of all the others. In the effort to see whether the 
 conception of Hicks might not be adapted to the 
 new knowledge I was led to consider that a group of 
 electrons of the same name must tend to expand into a 
 shell by mutual repulsion of the constituents of the group; 
 yet this shell might be restrained from dissipation by 
 further expansion, if it were conjoined with a concentric 
 shell of opposite electrification. Moreover, such a struc- 
 ture may be repeated several times, thus giving the several 
 repetitions in the thermal properties demanded by the 
 thermo-chemical relations of the elements. To hold such 
 
 cal molecule), is hardly likely to exist permanently according to 
 accepted electro-chemical doctrine, because the two negative elec- 
 trons repel each other and tend to split the molecule. But the 
 molecule. H+ H_ should be entirely stable, and it serves the pur- 
 pose of Bohr's theory equally well if we suppose that, in the ion- 
 ization of the molecule, the negative atom alone loses its extra 
 negative electron by the step-to-step process of orbital shifting, 
 becoming in this way similar to its companion atom. If a single 
 electron (e) is shared between two atoms, the successive stages of 
 ionization are: 
 
 H+H_ = H'H = H, H = H, H, e. 
 
 The intermediate stage gives no spectrum, but the last or ac- 
 tively transitional one gives the Balmer Series. It is also prob- 
 able that under certain rare conditions, the hydrogen atom may 
 retain two negative electrons and give the series of lines in the 
 spectrum of V Puppis. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 27 
 
 an assortment together as one piece in spite of the tremen- 
 dous energies demanded by internal revolutions, is not a 
 simple proposition; but possibly the thing may be accom- 
 plished if we postulate a medium back of the electrons with 
 a complex vortical flow, somewhat analogous to the Hicks 
 plan, which controls the electronic motions. It is necessary 
 to assume that at each reversal of vorticity, there is an 
 uptilting and reversal of spin in the electrons, considered 
 to resemble gyroscopes, if the expansive force acts at right 
 angles to the directive force. According to gyroscopic 
 analogies, the electrons can rotate either right-handed or 
 left-handed with equal facility as long as the plane of 
 rotation is normal to the direction of revolutionary motion 
 which is that of the directive force; but if shifted radially 
 in the instantaneous direction of the plane of rotation, the 
 electron so urged is liable to be overturned as in a well- 
 known gyroscopic experiment. The reversal of the elec- 
 tron's rotation requires the expenditure of one of Planck's 
 units of work. 
 
 Of the hypothetical system of concentric vortices which 
 has been mathematically computed for an assumed irrota- 
 tional medium, Hicks himself says: "If vortex atoms are 
 realities, the exact quantitative theory developed in this 
 paper can not accord with actual facts, because it is de- 
 veloped with reference to a surrounding irrotational ether, 
 which can not be the case in nature. Nevertheless, many of 
 the general properties would doubtless be similar."* 
 
 In the atom which we are considering, the stream lines 
 are "lines of flow" of the electrons, but not of their con- 
 stituent medium, because the components of electronic 
 rotation, or spin, do not vanish as they are supposed to 
 do in irrotational motion, and stream and vortex lines can 
 not "fold together, cross, and expand" in continuity at a 
 limit. Still, even though the gyroscopic reversals are sud- 
 den, there is a decided analogy to the condition postulated 
 
 ^"Researches in Vortex Motion. Part III. On Spiral or Gyro- 
 static Vortex Aggregates." By W. M. Hicks, F.R.S. Proc. Roy. 
 Soc. London, Vol. LXII, p. 335, February 3, 1898. 
 
28 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 by Hicks. I will merely note that the alkali metals which 
 are placed at the maxima of Lothar Meyer's curve of atomic 
 volumes, or in positions which, according to my supposi- 
 tion, mark strong intensification of those thermal proper- 
 ties which are given by nuclear constitution, are of all the 
 elements those which are most prone to give a mixed flame 
 spectrum in which the bright lines are accompanied by a 
 strong superposed continuous spectrum, and they are 
 thermally expanded atoms. These atoms are therefore at 
 nodal points of the interior organization of their nuclei, 
 each corresponding to the successive addition of a new 
 pair of electronic shells in the order of increasing steps in 
 the atomic weight. 
 
 Professor W. M. Thornton* finds that "the periodic 
 curves of density and atomic volume both have the inflec- 
 tion characteristic of hysteresis. They can be built up on 
 the assumption that the internal force by which atoms are 
 held together passes through a simple periodic change and 
 that in the resultant change of atomic volume there is 
 structural hysteresis." Hydrogen, boron, aluminum, cop- 
 per, ruthenium and osmium, which are the densest atoms 
 of their respective thermal periods, have their atomic 
 weights proportional to the cubes of the first six natural 
 numbers. Presumably, the most complex atom, uranium, 
 has six rings of supernumerary electrons, arranged in one 
 orbital plane, and six pairs of electronic concentric spherical 
 shells, or what may be likened to a twelve-storied structure, 
 and it is doubtful if any larger number of stories can exist 
 in an atom. 
 
 The thermal relations of the atoms appear to be those of 
 their central nuclei, both as to chemical properties and as -to 
 those radiations which are especially caused by heat. Per- 
 haps this is what Swedenborg glimpsed when he assigned 
 heat to a "central motion of particles." 
 
 *"The Curves of the Periodic Law," Philosophical Mag. far 
 July, 1917, p. 70. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER: (II) ITS RELATION 
 TO THE ATOM 
 
 The particles of ether may be produced out of the aura by 
 some modification, perhaps involving a virtual condensation of 
 the aura; but the process has not reached any final limit, for 
 the ether-particles remain highly elastic, and if there is a shell 
 of ether around each atom, it is compressible since the density 
 of the bound ether in matter varies. It may be admitted that 
 we do not know just what ethereal "density" means, and that 
 it is probably a concentration of some electrical property. 
 Just as spongy platinum, by the powerful attraction of its 
 atoms and the large surfaces of its porosities, condenses gases 
 in its pores, and thus by its presence has the same effect as an 
 increase of pressure and favors chemical union of certain 
 gases where this union is facilitated by pressure; so the 
 heavier atoms condense the so-called ether in the interatomic 
 spaces, and this is done so nearly in proportion to the atomic 
 weight that it is possible to predict the refractive index with 
 approximation from the known atomic constitution of a sub- 
 stance in unit volume, though more closely from the electric 
 properties. It is indifferent whether different atoms are 
 chemically united or merely mixed, as far as refractive prop- 
 erties are concerned. Hence the ability to condense ether 
 resides directly in the atoms. The denser "bound ether" exerts 
 greater electric inductance on the vibrating ether which tra- 
 verses it and thus retards the passage of light. Though readily 
 thrust aside, the bound ether "particles" can not be dispelled by 
 other particles of their own order of magnitude without suf- 
 fering some oscillatory disturbance ; and this oscillation of the 
 bound ether-particle is itself electro-magnetic and reacts on the 
 electric oscillation of the light-bearing ether-particle* with its 
 
 *If we call the direction of advance the "polar" axis of the par- 
 ticle, any oscillation in the equatorial plane would be equally di- 
 vided between transverse and parallel vibrations in respect to a 
 meridional plane, and polarization in this case would be impossible; 
 but a meridional oscillation may be either transverse or parallel to 
 a given meridional plane. The fact of luminous polarization there- 
 
 29 
 
30 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 reciprocating magnetic vortex in such a way as to retard its 
 onward progression. 
 
 Since oscillating or rotating ether not only possesses ethereal 
 mass, but also electro-magnetic inertia, the ether, considered 
 as an interatomic medium, is a substance which offers no 
 resistance to the mechanical motion of atoms which do not set 
 it rotating, or oscillating in the special luminous mode, but 
 possesses electro-magnetic inertia for luminous motions 
 which cause its particles to oscillate luminously. Simi- 
 larly, though the advance of a broad surface composed of 
 many molecules with their atoms and electrons can not cause 
 a single ether-particle to rotate (because the dimensions of the 
 two are on a totally different scale of magnitude), motions of 
 individual electrons which are of a like order of magnitude 
 with the ether-particles and which are not self -compensatory, 
 are competent to impart to the ether temporary electric inertia 
 and momentum. Thus the supposed ether, though having no 
 inertia of its own, is bound to matter by having imposed upon 
 it a portion of the inertia of electronic movement sufficient, at 
 any rate, to cause some adhesion of the bound ether to material 
 particles. 
 
 There is also some temporarily associated ether of another 
 sort, for even in solid bodies at ordinary temperatures, there 
 is, in addition to the thermal energy of molecular vibrations 
 mechanically transferred, some low-temperature radiation be- 
 tween the molecules; and as I have shown elsewhere in treat- 
 ing of gaseous radiation, this internal radiation becomes of ex- 
 ceptional prominence and importance in the gaseous atmos- 
 phere. To this extent, at any rate, even the radiant ether may 
 be bound to matter. 
 
 Various theorists have speculated as to whether the light- 
 bearing ether does or does not possess mass. Clerk 
 Maxwell has assured us that light has momentum and 
 
 fore decides that the vibration of the polarized light is a meridi- 
 onal oscillation. The plane of vibration may, however, be mag- 
 netically rotated in an equatorial direction as in the Kerr effect. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 31 
 
 therefore the ether must have both mass and inertia as 
 long as it transports light; and he even went so far as to 
 assign to the free ether a definite density in* the ordinary 
 sense. 
 
 Luigi d'Auria,f considering the extent of space and 
 assuming it to be filled with ether, thought that the gravi- 
 tative action of the whole ether would suffice to account 
 for stellar motions; but since he enormously underrated 
 the immensity of space (in confining it to a radius of about 
 2,000 light-years) and also misunderstood Maxwell whose 
 ethereal density was referred to water as unity and not to 
 air, d'Auria's computation is of no value. Maxwell's 
 density also contained a small numerical error, as I pointed 
 out in my "Cosmic Cycle" J, but this is a mere bagatelle 
 compared with the gratuitous assumptions which he has 
 made in getting any density at all of the material sort for 
 the interstellar medium, 
 
 G. A. Him, in his "Constitution de 1'Espace Celeste," has 
 given elaborate computations of the action of a resisting 
 medium upon the motion of the planets and has demon- 
 strated that the large material mass assigned to an inter- 
 planetary medium by Siemens and others, is an impossi- 
 bility. But the conclusion that the light-bearing ether has 
 no mass does not follow- The work of Him, however, 
 proves that an ether possessing such ethereal mass as is 
 required for the various ethereal functions does not fill all 
 space in the form of a continuous medium as was formerly 
 supposed. Whatever ethereal atmospheres there may be 
 are strictly limited to the immediate vicinity of massive 
 bodies. An atmosphere of free ether particles, since these \ 
 have mass but not inertia, might be expected to follow a ; 
 planet, but not to share in its rotation. Such an atmosphere 
 might be somewhat more extensive than the atmosphere 
 of air. 
 
 * 
 
 *In his article "-Either" in the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia 
 Britannica. 
 
 \Journal of the Franklin Institute, October, 1897. 
 ^American Journal of Science [4] Vol. XIII, p. 192, 1902. 
 
32 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 This doctrine of the limitation of ethereal atmospheres 
 to spheres greater than the aerial, but still confined to the 
 neighborhood of the heavenly bodies, was held by Sweden- 
 borg, was formerly peculiar to him, and probably con- 
 tributed to the rejection of his theory of the luminiferous 
 ether for nearly two hundred years, because, at least during 
 the Nineteenth Century, it was accepted almost as an axiom 
 that light is propagated through a continuous medium 
 filling all space, and by transverse waves in this medium; 
 and therefore, since the stars send us light, it was supposed 
 that the luminiferous medium must extend beyond them. 
 We need not abandon the idea of a universal interstellar 
 atmosphere, but it is not the atmosphere which conveys 
 light. The new doctrine of discrete light "quanta," though 
 it may be non-committal as to the precise nature of the 
 luminous entity, rejects the supposed continuity of a lumi- 
 niferous medium, but harmonizes well with Swedenborg's 
 definition and with the function which he attributed to the 
 ethereal particle. 
 
 The revival of a modified corpuscular theory of light no 
 longer compels us to explain the aberration of light on the 
 undulatory theory by "the rather startling hypothesis that 
 the luminiferous aether passes freely through the sides of 
 the telescope and through the earth itself" ;* and while the 
 meaning of the Michelson-Morley experiment has been 
 much debated, its result is at least in harmony with the 
 supposition that a shell of bound ether is attached to, and 
 is carried along by every atom and thus, by summation, 
 by the earth as a whole in its motion (though not as a 
 rotating external atmosphere which, however, does not 
 enter into the light equation) ; but this bound ether is 
 not the ether which conveys light from outside sources. 
 This follows also from the result of Lord Rayleigh's 
 inquiry: "Does Motion through the ^Ether cause Double 
 Refraction ?"f confirmed with even more delicate precau- 
 
 *G. G. Stokes, Philosophical Magazine, [3] Vol. XXVII, p. 9, 
 July, 1845. 
 
 ] Philosophical Magazine, [6] Vol. IV, p. 678, December, 1902. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 33 
 
 tions by D. B. Brace.* These experiments show that the ether 
 concerned in refraction is bound to the earth and travels with it 
 through space. 
 
 As Stokes pointed out in the above paper, the adoption of a 
 corpuscular theory of light makes the aberration of light a 
 very simple thing, while the hypothesis of luminous transverse 
 vibrations in a quasi-solid and yet fluid medium, puts a heavy 
 strain on our credulity. 
 
 Foucault's experiment which showed that light travels more 
 slowly through transparent bodies of greater density, than it 
 does through bodies of feeble density, demonstrated that the 
 density of the included ether must vary through a considerable 
 range according as it is associated with dense or with rarined 
 matter. This "density of the ether," however, does not refer 
 to that of the particles themselves. They may be not only 
 elastic, but expansile and contractile, though through a very 
 minute range. As light-quanta in free space, they presum- 
 ably have the same size as electrons, according to the hypo- 
 thesis of their origin which has been presented in this paper, 
 though the electron is rendered rigid by its rapid axial rota- 
 tion, while the non-rotating ether is yielding. 
 
 Fessenden, assuming that the electronic charges are the 
 sole cause of the mass, and their motions, of the inertia of 
 matter, calculates from J. J. Thomson's formula for the 
 electrically produced inertia of a charged sphere, that 
 the electron is "about J4XIO' 13 cms.f in diameter. The 
 ionic equivalent being about 4 (i) X io~ 10 e. s. units [now 
 more accurately fixed by Millikan at 4.774 (.005) X 
 icr 10 ] we find the electrostatic tension and pressure at the 
 surface of the corpuscle, about 2Xio 32 dynes." J The re- 
 vised measurement of the electron's radius makes this more 
 nearly io 33 dynes. With this relatively enormous pressure 
 at the surface of the electron, it is necessary that the volume- 
 
 * Philosophical Magazine, [6] Vol. VII, p. 317. April, 1904. 
 
 fj. J. Thomson gives for the radius of an electron " about 10" 18 
 cm." (Conduction of Electricity through Gases. 2d Edn.. p. 655). 
 Millikan (The Electron, p. 251) gets for this radius, 1.9xlO~ 18 cm. 
 
 ^Science, N. S., Vol. XII, p. 743, November 16, 1900. 
 
34 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 elasticity shall be as great as io 73 , if the electron is not to col- 
 lapse entirely; and this represents the electronic volume- 
 elasticity resulting from the elasticity of the aura. It is by 
 virtue of this wonderful, almost infinite elasticity that the 
 aura is able to vibrate gravitationally with a periodicity com- 
 parable to that of light, through space of galactic dimensions. 
 
 The force required to produce the electric condensation at 
 the surface of the electron must be balanced by the equal in- 
 ternal spring of the electron's volume-elasticity. The 
 numerical ratio of volume to surface being that of the cube to 
 the square, and since the surface of an electron is about icr 25 
 sq. cm., we have approximately 
 
 (surface pressure) 3 / 2 
 
 volume-elasticity of electron = - 7 : 7 : 
 
 surface of electron 
 
 (io 32 ) 3 /2 
 = - ^ = io 73 . 
 
 1Q -25 
 
 Professor Fessenden suggests that the size of an electron 
 is determined by the fact that the breaking strain of the ether 
 is reached at this point, so that any further electric condensa- 
 tion is impossible. I would also suggest that probably the 
 rotation of the electron at its surface boundary attains the 
 speed of light, and that this is why when the electron is stript 
 of its superficial layer of ether, the latter is flung off with the 
 same speed. Also that the velocity of electronic rotation is the 
 same at all points of the surface of the particle, so that the 
 angular velocity increases from the equator to the poles, being 
 
 2 Xi OX i~ : == ^GoXio 22 revolutions per second 
 
 at the equator, if we adopt Millikan's value of the radius 
 of the electron. This is about 1,000 times as great as the 
 frequency of the characteristic vibrations of the lighter 
 atoms. Hence the angular velocity of the orbital revolu- 
 tions of these electrons is presumably less than that of their 
 rotations. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 35 
 
 The configuration of this superficial electronic motion 
 is similar to that which Swedenborg assigns to his ele- 
 mentary vortical particles (mentioned ante p. 9). An ex- 
 ample of a particular case of such motion may be seen in 
 my notes to the new English edition of the Principia* In 
 his doctrine of forms Swedenborg describes a fifth natural 
 form, superior to the vortical, "by which one thing regards 
 another as well as itself, nor is there anything but what 
 consults the general strength and concord."f On the low- 
 est plane of nature, this form exhibits itself in the gravita- 
 tional wave by which each particle is united and consociated 
 with all the particles in its galactic cell. Thence comes the 
 interaction and universality of natural law. Nature is not 
 diverse, here of one sort, but elsewhere totally different and 
 unrelated. Nature is one and the same throughout her 
 vast complexes, and this unity appears to require some such 
 fundamental singularity as that of the form of motion and 
 the size of the electrons which must everywhere be precise 
 duplicates. 
 
 The origin of a light-quantum I conceive to be the 
 gyroscopic uptilting and reversal of an electron, accom- 
 panied by reversal of electric sign. If the center of rota- 
 tion of a gyroscope is revolved in the direction of no re- 
 sistance, there is no uptilting; but revolution in the opposite 
 direction experiences resistance which reverses the spin. 
 Similarly, a rotating electron may be carried around an 
 orbit and brought back to its original position without per- 
 forming work; but to reverse the plane of the electron's 
 rotation requires the expenditure of one of Planck's least 
 quantities of energy, and this means that resistance has 
 been encountered. The quicker the reversal, the more in- 
 tense is the radiation; but the period of the vibration 
 appears to depend on some function of the radius of the 
 electronic orbit. The simplest supposition is that the 
 
 *Appendix A. Vol. II, Fig. 4 a, p. 623. 
 
 fFor illustrations of this see my paper in the New-Church Re- 
 view, Vol. XIX, p. 256. 
 
36 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 radiant period is the same as that of the electronic revolu- 
 tion, but this does not necessarily follow. 
 
 Where many electrons are closely associated, it is diffi- 
 cult, or almost impossible to overturn a single electron 
 without at the same time effecting a similar overturning in 
 a multitude of others; but the few electrons whose group 
 is denoted by the Moseley number, are relatively free. Each 
 executes its own period, though, even here, the mutual 
 relations of attraction and repulsion which tend to preserve 
 stable relative positions, can not be disturbed by the mis- 
 placement of a single electron without starting a series of 
 vibrations which give complicated line-spectra through 
 the complex perturbations of the group. lonization of the 
 atom is an inevitable concomitant of the operation, that is, 
 the radiating atom either loses or gains one or more 
 electrons. 
 
 The adoption of the assumption that the electron repre- 
 sents the greatest possible condensation of electric force, 
 and that there is only one kind of electron, along with 
 Fessenden's conception that its size (and therefore its 
 electric charge) is conditioned by the breaking strain of 
 the ether, leads readily to my thesis that the electron has a 
 rotation and a peculiar form of vortical motion similar to 
 Swedenborg's elementary particle, and furnishes a reason 
 why it should have this peculiar form. In fact, no other 
 form would fit the demand that the surface shall every- 
 where have the rotary velocity which is fundamental in the 
 physics of the ether and definitive of the relation between 
 electrostatics and electromagnetics. My further proviso 
 that an ethereal electronic sheath is cast off under shock 
 at the moment of reversal of electric sign, which reversal 
 is the origin of the reciprocating magnetic field of the 
 luminous particle, and that the sheath becomes an ether- 
 particle having the same significant rectilinear velocity as 
 the circulatory velocity of the electron's surface, also 
 accounts for the fixed value of the energy-constant, equiva- 
 lent to the light-quantum, and defines it as the energy 
 required to overturn and change the sign of an electron. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 37 
 
 The same is in perfect agreement with, and satisfactorily in- 
 terprets the well known law that "positive and negative elec- 
 trical charges always appear simultaneously and in exactly 
 equal amounts" ; for if positive and negative electricity are but 
 two different aspects of one and the same electric unit, the 
 separation of a pair of electrons must inevitably give equal and 
 opposite electrical charges. 
 
 Though not expressed in identical terms, my supposition 
 that Planck's least quantum of energy represents the resistance 
 which an electron offers to a gyroscopic uptilting with reversal 
 of electric sign, agrees in a general way with Fessenden's 
 hypothesis that Planck's "h" represents a gyroscopic reversal 
 of vorticity.* 
 
 Swedenborg had the idea of "small corpuscles which float 
 in the ether and continually issue from the hard body; thus 
 the ether is urged into a whirling motion at a distance from its 
 body, and this causes light, and to a certain degree, electricity. 
 For no bodies exist which are not in some way or other pene- 
 trated by the ether."f Though somewhat vaguely stated, if 
 the "whirling motion" is thought of as a vortex filament in the 
 magnetic medium, and the "corpuscles" as Thomsonian cor- 
 puscles, or electrons, this corresponds to the present conception 
 of a static electrical charge on the surface of a "hard body" 
 with its attendant Faraday "lines of force." Swedenborg's 
 version, that "in order for anything to be electric and attract 
 very light bodies, a certain circular motion is necessary in the 
 ether," also accords with Sir J. J. Thomson's interpretation of 
 an electric line of force, namely, that electric attraction is to 
 be ascribed to the tendency of vortex filaments in an inter- 
 vening medium to shorten themselves. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin, according to Millikan ("The Electron," 
 p. 15), was the first to express his belief in the 
 existence of a definite electrical particle, where he says: 
 "The electrical matter consists of particles extremely subtle, 
 
 *R. A. Fessenden on " Gyroscopic Quanta," Science, N. S., Vol. 
 XXXIX. p. 533, April 10, 1914. 
 
 ^Principia, new English edition, Vol. II, p. 221. 
 
38 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 since it can permeate common matter, even the densest, with 
 such freedom and ease as not to receive any appreciable resist- 
 ance/' I have not been able to verify this quotation in any 
 work by Franklin to which I have access. In his note on "Pro- 
 tection from Lightning," written at Paris in September, 1767, 
 Franklin says : "The matter of lightning, or of electricity, is an 
 extreme subtle fluid, pentrating other bodies, and subsisting in 
 them equally diffused." This says nothing about electric 
 particles. 
 
 Swedenborg, at any rate, declared that the light-bearing 
 ether was made of corpuscles and associated them in an in- 
 definite way with certain other "corpuscles" which somehow 
 were connected with electricity. This is exceedingly vague, 
 but in my view it contains an adumbration of the truth. Mean- 
 while, in the gradual dawn of the scientific day, Swedenborg's 
 "corpuscles" and Franklin's particles of "electric matter," more 
 subtle than common matter, have become the "electrons" of 
 Johnstone Stoney, and the "corpuscles" of J. J. Thomson; and 
 at the hands of the latter investigator vague hypothesis has 
 given way to experimental demonstration and exact quantita- 
 tive measurement. 
 
 Is Entropy always One-Sided? For the last half century 
 it has been recognized that a certain sum total of energy may 
 be divided into two parts, namely, the free or available energy, 
 and the entropy; and that the available energy of sun or earth 
 is continually diminishing, while more and more of energy es- 
 capes into the aura, there to be stored up as entropy which, 
 according to Clausius, is a continually increasing quantity tend- 
 ing to a maximum, while the free energy of every material con- 
 figuration either remains the same, or diminishes. It can in 
 no wise be increased by human effort. 
 
 The thermal mechanism of matter has been likened to a 
 clock which is slowly running down; but as Sir Oliver 
 Lodge has said: "It would seem as if the second law of 
 thermodynamics must be somewhere disobeyed at least 
 if the age of the universe is both ways infinite else the 
 final consummation would have already arrived." This 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 39 
 
 dilemma has been considered in my paper : "What becomes 
 of the Light of the Stars?"* and I think it is now fairly 
 certain that matter is gradually destroyed and converted 
 into ethereal energy of radiation, which, in turn, is grad- 
 ually absorbed as it passes through the universal medium, 
 or aura, again originating matter in its incipient forms. f 
 
 We have then to recognize a reversal of the original 
 entropy proposition, namely, a building-up at this stage, 
 in place of a tearing-down; for how would it be possible 
 for the universe to endure unless both operations were 
 actual? We may admit that in the part of the universe in 
 which we are placed, the tearing-down operation is going 
 on; but it follows on any rational supposition that there 
 must be other parts of the universe where the building-up 
 of a renewed system takes place, where the first rudiments 
 of matter are coalescing and developing into gaseous atoms 
 and molecules, or into meteoritic crystals and are aggregat- 
 ing into nebulae, stars, and groups of stars, star-clusters and 
 galaxies. 
 
 Gravitational Relationships. This is not the place to 
 discuss at length the origin of matter, but something must 
 be said concerning the gravitational fields of the electrons 
 and ether-particles, which there is reason to suppose are 
 
 ^Popular Science Monthly, Vol. LXXXII, p. 289, March, 1913. 
 
 "]"Mr. Harlow Shapley has announced (Proc. National Academy of 
 Sciences. Vol. II. p. 14, Nov. 17, 1915) that the frequency of colors 
 in the star cluster Messier 13 shows conclusively that there is no 
 selective absorption of light in space (a conclusion which I had 
 already reached on other grounds in my paper, " What becomes of 
 the Light of the Stars? "). But his further statement that " in 
 the light of this result we are probably justified in assuming that 
 the non-selective absorption in space (obstruction) is also negligi- 
 ble " (Op. cit., p. 15), though it may be justified if by " obstruction " 
 is meant a non-selective cutting out of light by particles too coarse 
 to exert any selective influence, fails to cover the more general 
 non-selective absorption of light by the aura which fills all space. 
 The existence of this absorption is shown in my examination of 
 the white nebulae, " Are the White Nebulee Galaxies? " quite as 
 stronglv as the non-existence of selective absorption is shown by the 
 other argument. 
 
40 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 limited to a single galactic cell.* Lodge computes that if 
 there could be substituted for the gravitational pull of the 
 sun which holds the earth in its orbit, an elastic pull through 
 steel rods and within their breaking strength, it would take 
 "a million million round rods or pillars each thirty feet in 
 "diameter" to stand the strain.f This strain is not carried 
 by a narrow beam of aura intervening between the two 
 bodies, but is the resultant of the interaction of fields of 
 force which fill an entire galactic cell. Though seemingly 
 impalpable, the aura is stronger than steel, but this strength 
 results from its intimate connection with an infinite source 
 of energy which is spiritual. So does the invisible spirit 
 control the body; and even so public opinion, a seemingly 
 intangible thing, is stronger than the most powerful auto- 
 crat, and in the end will prevail. Because of the universal 
 relationships of the aura, it has the strength of the many 
 in one; and the wonderful thing about the electron, con- 
 sidered as the gravitational unit, is that through its gravi- 
 tational field of force it is everywhere present (at least 
 within the boundaries of its own aural cell) and receives 
 into itself an impulse from and an impress of all that 
 transpires in a vast galactic environment. 
 
 The electrons are like little organisms, or least hearts, 
 whose synchronous systole and diastole make the life of 
 the universe, perpetually receiving and transmitting energy 
 from an inexhaustible source. The aura is the "funda- 
 mental substance." As Sir Oliver Lodge says of it in his 
 searching analysis: "It cannot really be ordinary matter, 
 because ordinary matter is definitely differentiated from 
 it, and is presumably composed of it; but the inertia of 
 ordinary matter, however it be electrically or magnetically 
 explained, must in the last resort depend on something 
 parentally akin to inertia in the fundamental substance 
 which fills space."f 
 
 *See my paper: "On a Possible Limit to Gravitation," Publica- 
 tions of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. Ill, p. 335. 
 t'The Ether of Space," p. 128. 
 {"The Ether of Space," p. 135. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 41 
 
 At the center of each aural cell is a galactic nucleus from 
 which issue either two spiral streams of stars, or else con- 
 centric spheres of stars with but little spiral structure. 
 
 Galactic Dimensions. In regard to the actual status of 
 the galaxies Mr. Gore has shown,* and I have shown in- 
 dependently^ that the nebula in Andromeda must be an 
 object of truly galactic dimensions. On the supposition 
 that the nova which appeared near the center of the nebula 
 in 1885 had an absolute brightness equal to that of Nova 
 Persei 1901, I found that the nebula must be at least at a 
 distance of 1600 light-years. If the star in the nebula had 
 an absolute brightness of the same order as that of Tycho 
 Brahe's star, it may have been still more massive and some- 
 thing like five times as far away as the first estimate, or at 
 8,000 light-years; but anything brighter than this or any 
 larger distance seems improbable, for Nova Persei was itself 
 an object of phenomenal size, for which (in Astronomische 
 Nachrichten, Nr. 3771) I deduced a mass 1149 times that of 
 the sun. Mr. Curtis gets 10,000 light-years as an average 
 value for the distance of certain white nebulae not more than 
 one- tenth of the angular diameter of the great Andromeda 
 nebula4 If these objects have approximately the same real 
 size, this would agree fairly with my first value ; but my second 
 value gives dimensions to the nebula which are more nearly 
 comparable with those of our own Galaxy. If all the galaxies, 
 including our own, have somewhat similar real diameters, the 
 Curtis nebulae should be more nearly 80,000 light-years distant, 
 and this seems to me a very reasonable assumption. 
 
 Admitting that the white nebulae are galaxies, or somewhat 
 widely separated aggregations of double spiral form, composed 
 of both stars and nebulous material, and in some cases (as in 
 
 *T. Ellard Gore in Knowledge, N. S., Vol. 6, p. 247, July, 1909. 
 fin Astronomische Nachrichten, Nr. 4536. 
 
 J Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 
 XXVII, p. 218, 1915. 
 
 As is indicated in my statistical study in Astronomische Nach- 
 richten, Nr. 4536. 
 
42 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 N. G. C. 4594 and 5746) with annular annexes of dark 
 meteoritic material, it becomes of interest to ask whether gravi- 
 tation also holds sway from one galaxy to another, or whether 
 there is a limit to the extent of the gravitational field around 
 a given galaxy. 
 
 Galactic Distribution and Gravitational Properties 
 Which May Be Inferred Therefrom. Considering that 
 the parallax of the nearest star is almost one second of arc, 
 if we represent the disk of a star 1,000,000 km. in diameter 
 by a little circle of I mm., we should have to place a similar 
 dot representing the next nearest star at a distance of 
 (92.9 X 206,265 )/io 6 , or about 192 km. away; and granting 
 that there may be regions in the Milky Way where the star- 
 density is 1,000 times as great as in our neighborhood, yet 
 even there the dots would be almost 20 km. apart. This gives 
 a startling picture of the sparsity of stellar material, and af- 
 fords very little ground for the supposition that the lucid stars 
 bwe their high temperature to collisions with other stars, sin :e 
 the chances of their meeting are almost infinitesimal. 
 
 On the other hand, if we let a millimeter dot stand for a 
 galaxy, neighboring galaxies will be represented by similar 
 dots sprinkled only a few centimeters apart; and since these 
 objects have velocities of upwards of 1,000 km. per sec., 
 frequent collisions are inevitable unless there are mutual 
 repulsions which develop upon arriving at too close prox- 
 imity. This result might, however, be produced in another 
 way, provided gravitational attraction by which we assume 
 the stellar movements are given, is not universal, but is 
 limited in its action to definite volumes around each galactic 
 center, within which gravity is controlled by definitely 
 limited currents of the aura. In fact, the great velocities 
 which are exhibited by certain of the white nebulae do not 
 necessarily imply that the motions have been imparted by 
 the attraction of masses enormously greater than that of 
 our Galaxy. The entire field of gravitational potential 
 energy belonging to a given galaxy being borne by a limit- 
 ing volume of surrounding aura, we may presume that if 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 43 
 
 this volume of aura has a motion of its own, the system of 
 enclosed material particles will necessarily follow. The 
 galactic multitude will be carried along as if it were so 
 much floating material borne on a supporting current of 
 the universal medium to which each particle is intimately 
 attached by its very constitution, though the cause of the 
 motion is not to be sought by pressure in currents of imme- 
 diately juxtaposed aura, but in more extensive aural cur- 
 rents, with which the matter is connected through fields of 
 force. Moreover, as each portion of aura, attendant upon 
 a given galaxy, constitutes, as it were, a single compart- 
 ment, or cell, in a great multi-galactic organism, while it 
 is conceivable that occasionally a fragment of aura with 
 its enclosed matter may be torn off from a given cell, and 
 may invade a neighboring cell, we might rather anticipate 
 that, as a rule, the individual compartments will retain 
 their individuality. In general, an entire block of aura with 
 its contained galaxy will not penetrate a neighboring block 
 as one mass, but if it must move in that direction, it will 
 do so by thrusting the other to one side. Except for cer- 
 tain gaseous nebulae of bizarre forms which appear to be 
 entangled among stellar masses belonging to our own 
 Galaxy, the other, or white nebulae, as a rule, exhibit a 
 general similarity of type; and in only a very few cases is 
 there any appearance whatever of that reckless disarray 
 which might be charged to interpenetrating or colliding 
 galaxies. I think we may infer that in spite of what is 
 geometrically a very close proximity, these galactic masses, 
 while moving among each other freely, do not collide ; and 
 if occasionally a fragment of the mass is torn off and sent 
 far afield, together with its enclosed matter, there is pro- 
 duced at most only a lone wandering star, moving with the 
 velocity of the original fragment, which may for a while 
 thread the intergalactic spaces, or even pass through foreign 
 galaxies as a "run-away star," but which will eventually be 
 subdued by the persistent lagging of its attached aura, just 
 as the relics of a tornado go on whirling for a while, but 
 
44 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 are at last absorbed in the more general movements of the 
 atmosphere. 
 
 We are thus led to look upon the galaxies as local knots 
 of aggregation, separated by considerable spaces, but not 
 by spaces which are enormous compared with the galactic 
 diameters ; and these intermediate spaces need not be wholly 
 devoid of stars. It has been surmised that some of the 
 faintest stars shown on photographic plates may be at dis- 
 tances of something like 50,000 light-years. This is possi- 
 ble, but if so far away, it is improbable that these stars 
 have any connection with our Galaxy whose condensations 
 occupy a much smaller space.* 
 
 Pulsations and Revolutions of Electrons in the Atom. 
 If the pulsation of the electron involves an elastic recipro- 
 cating vibration between the whole vast body of aura in an 
 aural "cell" reacting upon the elastic resistance of the 
 rotating aura circumscribed by the surface of an electron, 
 the superficial condensation need not be great, but at any 
 rate the interior resilience must be enormous. In fact, we 
 should infer as much from the wholly independent result 
 obtained by Fessenden for the pressure at the surface of 
 an electron. The atoms in their most condensed form in 
 liquids and solids have equally an enormous interior resist- 
 ance and are practically incompressible. This property will 
 have to be referred back to the great resistance to pressure 
 of the constituent electrons. 
 
 The Pulsating Electron and Its Relation to the Universe. 
 According to the experiments of Bjerknes with pulsating 
 spheres, if the results are applicable to gravitation, since 
 negative gravitation is unknown, it is necessary that all of 
 the pulsators shall pulsate synchronously with identical 
 periods and phases. The gravitational pulsation must 
 therefore be the unique origin of time and its most funda- 
 mental expression. It also constitutes a most amazing evi- 
 dence of the absolute unity of the created universe. Hicks 
 
 *As is shown in my paper : "On Stellar and Nebular Distances/' 
 Knowledge, Vol. XXXV, No. 530, September, 1912, pages 329- 
 332; and No. 531, October, 1912, pages 373-376. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 45 
 
 remarks on this point : "All we have to suppose is that atoms 
 pulsate with a constant period, and that none have phases 
 differing by more than 90, or that if such once existed 
 they have been eliminated." No suggestion has been 
 offered, however, as to any means by which this elimina- 
 tion can be effected. 
 
 Now in spite of an infinite diversity, there is in the 
 universe a unity which suggests a consistent plan and uni- 
 versal correlation of parts. Spiritual philosophy attributes 
 this unity to the Oneness of a divine Creator. If the syn- 
 chronous pulsations of the electrons can be demonstrated, 
 it will be the nearest approach that science has ever made 
 to the acknowledgment by the magicians of Egypt, the 
 very dust having become alive : "This is the finger of God" 
 (Exodus, viii, 19). Verily, the mystery of the infinitely 
 little is as overwhelming as that of the outstretched heavens. 
 
 Hicks says: "If the theory offered is the true one for the 
 explanation of gravitation it would be possible to have celestial 
 systems, the parts of which in each would obey the law of 
 gravitation, but which would not influence each other, or would 
 repel each other." Evidence has now been adduced which 
 seems to me powerful in confirmation of this conception. The 
 relative crowding of the galaxies is so great that it argues a 
 mutual repulsion between these larger parts in a system of 
 another order. 
 
 Various investigations of the pulsatory gravitative hypo- 
 thesis have been made, notably those of the mathematicians, 
 Hicks, Burton, and Leahy. In these studies it has been found 
 necessary to assume the existence of points which are sources 
 or sinks of fluid motion. Swedenborg also predicted the be- 
 ginnings of the universe from "points'" which are centers of 
 "conatus," which may perhaps be translated "energy." But 
 however permissible the assumption of these "sinks" and 
 "sources" may be as mathematical devices, it is impossible to 
 conceive of them as actually existent, except as the outcome of 
 a hyper-space of whose reality several eminent mathematicians 
 have speculated, and for which even a semblance of experimen- 
 tal evidence has been given by Zollner in his "Transcendental 
 
46 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 Physics." The existence of properties which transcend those 
 of matter and tridimensional space is forced upon our at- 
 tention whenever we approach the boundaries of the material 
 universe. 
 
 While the enormous velocity of gravitation indicates that 
 the transmitting medium is almost incompressible, the atom 
 and the electron must be regarded as definitely limited volumes 
 within which a diminution of the "density" of the aura arises 
 through the centrifugal force of a rapid rotation. Burton as- 
 sumes that "the nucleus of an electron, instead of being 
 vacuous, is merely a region of somewhat diminished density. 
 . . . This assumption as to the nature of the electronic 
 nucleus is admittedly gratuitous, but apart from the difficulty 
 regarding mobility which it was designed to remove, it has the 
 advantage of greatly simplifying the dynamics of the problem 
 proposed." (Philosophical Magazine, [6], Vol. XVII, p. 74, 
 1909). By admitting the existence of local variations of 
 density in a nearly incompressible and highly elastic medium, 
 the transfer of such centers of density- variation becomes com- 
 prehensible, and likewise the interaction of atomic pulsations 
 may be grasped. 
 
 In order that a mass of matter, that is, a partial vacuity in 
 the aura, may move from position a to position b, there must 
 be an inflow of aura at a and an outflow at b, which requires 
 that there shall be a gradient of pressure in the aura between a 
 and b, and that work shall be performed by the aura at the ex- 
 pense of its potential energy. 
 
 Mr. A. H. Leahy has urged an objection against the theory 
 we are considering, and in regard to the proposition 
 "that all atoms are pulsating in phases not differing from 
 one another by more than a quarter period, and that the 
 intervening medium is an incompressible fluid" he says: 
 "If this were the case, the law of universal attraction ac- 
 cording to the law of the inverse squares would follow; 
 but unless the medium is supposed to be absolutely incom- 
 pressible, in which case all pulsations would be instanta- 
 neously diffused throughout space, there would on this 
 theory be repulsion between bodies at distances greater 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 47 
 
 than a quarter wave-length, and bodies would at certain 
 distances repel one another, which is contrary to observa- 
 tion."* Since in the present paper, evidence is adduced 
 showing that presumably bodies of galactic magnitude, 
 and separated by intergalactic distances, do repel each 
 other, we have only to predicate of the gravitational quarter- 
 wave a length of the order of the radius of an aural cell, 
 and 1 we shall have a theory of pulsating matter which 
 accounts for both the atom and the galaxy as necessarily 
 interrelated parts. Thus in the light of the new evidence, 
 the supposed incompatibility between observation and 
 theory becomes, on the contrary, a powerful argument in 
 favor of the new theory. 
 
 As to the direction of propagation of the gravitational 
 wave, if the direction is strictly radial, it is necessary to 
 suppose that the wave is reflected directly back upon itself 
 at the remote boundary of the cell ; or else we must presume 
 that the radial direction is eventually diverted into a cir- 
 culatory path. The latter accords better with magnetic 
 analogies. In neither the magnetic nor the gravitative 
 fields is there any direct flow of the medium along lines of 
 force as conditioning the potential ; but conditions of mag- 
 netic polarization, or of pressure strain, are involved, either 
 of them following lines controlled by the peculiar proper- 
 ties of the organ of transmission. Since equal numbers of 
 electrons, having by their positions and rotations the 
 properties of positive and negative electricity, are asso- 
 ciated together in the atom, it may be proper to consider 
 the gravitational unit as a pair of electrons, each pair con- 
 stituting an electric doublet. The immediate electric attrac- 
 tions of the components of the doublet being thus very 
 nearly satisfied, gravitation becomes a secondary residual 
 effect of relatively very inconsiderable importance, com- 
 pared with the major electrical forces from which the inner 
 energy of the atom springs. Even if independent sources 
 
 * Transactions Cambridge Philosophical Society, Vol. XIV., 
 p. 61, 1889. 
 
48 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 must be assigned to the gravitational and the electrical 
 effects, the latter being especially manifested in chemical 
 affinity, nevertheless, the two are so intimately associated in 
 the atom that they can not be entirely divorced. On the 
 whole, however, it seems more reasonable to attribute 
 cohesion to the attraction of such electric doublets, but to 
 assign gravitational attraction to the interaction of the 
 pressure fields of pulsating electronic rings. 
 
 "Bound Ether" It is now pertinent to explain my con- 
 ception of the "bound ether" more fully. In the first place, 
 by "ether" in the passage quoted from Sir J. J. Thomson, 
 is not to be understood the specially organized entity which 
 conveys light, but a condensation of the universal aura in 
 the immediate vicinity of matter, which is governed by the 
 fourth-power law appropriate to the fundamental mag- 
 netic substance; and it would perhaps be permissible to call 
 it bound aura, rather than "bound ether," though if it is 
 desired to look upon the "atmospheric" sheath of the 
 electron as a sort of attached particle which, when 
 detached, becomes an ether-particle, it is also permissible 
 to do that. The ether which conveys light, however, is not 
 so governed or hampered in its progress through interstellar 
 space, but, like the electrons, it is free, corpuscular, and 
 possesses radiant energy which diminishes with the inverse 
 square of the distance as it moves onward with the speed 
 of light, simply by spreading its field of force over a wider 
 area. Inherently, the energy of the ether-particle does not 
 change until it is ready to be reabsorbed, either by matter, 
 or by the universal aura in the reconstitution of matter in 
 its incipient nebular form. 
 
 The rays of light are not deflected by passing through the 
 bound ether attached to matter, because they readily pene- 
 trate this ether ; but they are retarded by it through electro- 
 magnetic forces developed in the medium. Thus aberra- 
 tion of light is entirely independent of the bound ether, 
 nor can the rotation of a mass of matter impart a like 
 rotation to the aura. The attached ether moves with its 
 attracting matter from one locality to another. This 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 49 
 
 moving attached ether accompanying a transparent body 
 in its motion does not carry with it, control, or push aside 
 any radiant ether which may enter it by the crude mode of 
 a bodily displacement. Yet in a more subtle way, through 
 induced vibrations and the drag which they impose upon 
 the passing rays, the bound ether, whether quiescent or 
 moving (and independently of its state of relative motion 
 or rest) does exert a retarding influence on the passing 
 radiant ether, but one which is determined by the density 
 and electro-magnetic state, and not by the motion of the 
 bound ether. Thence comes refraction. 
 
 Is there a More Extensive Atmosphere of Ether Attached 
 to the Earth? The argument of Sir J. J. Thomson, noted 
 above, which limits the extent of the bound ether shell (con- 
 sisting of bound aura) to the immediate vicinity of matter, is 
 conclusive as regards an electronic atmosphere. Swedenborg, 
 however, imagined that there might be atmospheres of ether 
 encompassing the heavenly bodies and much more extensive 
 than the aerial atmospheres, but also everywhere penetrating 
 between the grosser particles of solid matter. In his futile 
 attempt to improve the Cartesian vortical scheme for explain- 
 ing the planetary motions, he at first ascribed their cause to the 
 interaction of vortices in these extended spheres of ether, 
 though distinguishing the ether from a universal interstellar 
 atmosphere consisting of still finer particles. After explaining 
 that the earth was thrown off from the sun and at first moved 
 near the solar surface and performed "its axillary revolutions 
 more rapidly than it does at a farther distance from the sun, 
 where a considerable portion of it is consumed in the forma- 
 tion of ether, air, water and terrestrial material,"* Sweden- 
 borg proceedsf to develop this theory. The correct transla- 
 tion here is a matter of more importance. Clissold's English 
 translation conveys a wrong impression.^ Rightly rendered, 
 
 *Prtncipia, Part III, Chap. XI, n. 2. 
 
 fO. cit., n. 4. 
 
 ^Compare the original: " Principia Rerum Naturalium sive No- 
 vorum Tentaminum Ph&nome'na Mundi Elementaris Philosophic^ 
 Explicanda," of which a very carefully edited edition has recently 
 
50 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 the text states that the earth, moving among the elementary 
 particles which surround the sun as a medium and fill the 
 whole space of the solar system to the outermost planets, sets 
 in motion, or drives (agat) a vortex of its own, which in the 
 early stages of the earth's development was large because the 
 earth then moved more rapidly, and a rapidly moving body 
 can drive a larger vortex than a body which moves slowly. 
 Also a planet of greater mass draws, or retains (trahat) a larg- 
 er vortex, because "the impetus and momentum (pondus) are 
 compounded of the mass multiplied into the velocity." This 
 language is applicable to and consistent with no other concep- 
 tion than that of a rotating sphere of bound ether attached to 
 the earth and retained by ethereal friction. Swedenborg sup- 
 posed that a similar, but immensely greater sphere of bound 
 ether surrounds the sun, its volume having some relation to 
 the mass of that body. Since the lesser volume moves in the 
 greater, the two necessarily react.* It was natural to inquire 
 iwhether the reaction of these vast volumes of bound ether 
 might not explain the planetary motions. The conception, 
 though evidently suggested by the vortical theory of Des Cartes, 
 is a great improvement on the latter in some respects and much 
 more subtle ; but it can not be admitted. The phenomenon, if 
 it were possible, would have an analogy to the invisible support 
 of a soaring bird whose momentum is transferred through 
 aerial viscosity to an immense volume of air, and the weight 
 of the bird by innumerable intermediates rests upon a wide 
 surface of the earth. f It would be inconceivable that a current 
 of ether, circulating around the sun and of no greater section 
 than the earth's, should exercise any immediate directive in- 
 fluence on the earth's motion ; but it was plausible that the in- 
 
 been brought out by the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences in 
 " Emanuel Swedenborg Opera qu&dam aut inedita aut obsoleta de 
 Rebus Naturalibus" Vol. II, Cosmologica. Stockholm: 1908. 
 
 * As shown, Op. cit., n. 5. 
 
 fSee my paper on " The R61e of Viscosity in Air Support of a 
 Moving Aeroplane," Technology Quarterly, Vol. XXI, p. 490, 
 Dec., 1908. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 51 
 
 teraction of immense volumes of ether might bind together 
 their respective centers through ethereal viscosity. Sweden- 
 bo rg's design of a flying machine shows that his thoughts had 
 been directed to mechanism of flight and that he had grasped 
 its essential principles. Here, however, analogy failed. The 
 volumes of bound ether accompanying sun and planets, if re- 
 tained by friction, will be conditioned by the areas and the 
 squares of the velocities of the frictional surfaces. Hence, since 
 the sun's equatorial velocity of rotation is only 41/3 times 
 that of the earth and 1/6 of Jupiter's, the sphere of bound 
 ether surrounding the sun, if it were thus retained, could 
 not extend much farther than that of some of the planets. 
 The supposed interaction of the solar and planetary vortices 
 simply does not exist. When it is recognized that a deep 
 layer of bound ether can not be held by friction, the con- 
 ception of extensive ethereal atmospheres and of their inter- 
 action as a source of gravity must be abandoned; but the 
 germ of the idea of gravity conceived as an interaction of 
 interpenetrating fields of force in one universal atmosphere 
 is contained in these early vortical theories. Whether 
 there may be an earthly atmosphere of free ether-particles 
 which do not move with the velocity of light, but remain 
 at rest in respect to the earth and therefore are not like 
 ordinary ether, and which outreach the aerial atmosphere, 
 and what the function of such an atmosphere may be, must 
 be left undecided; but the functions are not gravitational. 
 If there be such an atmosphere, it is perhaps the physical 
 basis of exterior thought, which may be said to be "in 
 space," and especially of that telepathic thought which is 
 received by harmoniously attuned instruments. 
 
 Later on, this theory of gravity appears to have been 
 given up. Its author still holds to the discontinuity of the 
 ether and its existence as a distinct, though not a universal 
 atmosphere ; but he assigns the gravitational role to a more 
 subtle atmosphere which extends throughout the celestial 
 spaces: "The three natural atmospheres originating from 
 the sun of the world, are the purer ether, which is universal, 
 and from which is all gravity; the middle ether which 
 
52 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 makes a vortex about the planets, in which also is light, in 
 which are the satellites, and from which comes magnetism; 
 and the ultimate ether which is the air." This conclusion, 
 though not reached until near the end of his life and not 
 published until after his death, was not explained at length ; 
 but it seems to have been deliberately and carefully thought 
 out, and it is in several respects in accordance with present 
 ideas. If Thomson is right, the sphere of bound ether can 
 extend little farther than the air, and can not include the 
 satellites, since it must not be confounded with the planet's 
 magnetic field. 
 
 In an intermediate stage of his thought, Swedenborg 
 considered the possibility of four atmospheres, two of 
 them, respectively assigned to gravitational and magnetic 
 activities, being described as universal, but distinct. In 
 his last view, he allows the ether to exercise both electric 
 and magnetic functions and omits the purely magnetic 
 atmosphere. This is in accordance with the salutary rule 
 that it is undesirable to multiply agents where a single one 
 is competent to fill several offices ; and a while ago a similar 
 dual, or "electro-magnetic" wave-theory in a single 
 "universal" ether was in vogue. But today, in view of the 
 greater penetrative power of the magnetic field, and the 
 decidedly electrical affinities of the ether, it is in order to 
 assign the dual function of both gravitational and mag- 
 netic activity to the universal atmosphere, while grouping 
 electricity and ether together as being two species of an 
 entity always most intimately associated with matter, save 
 when in transit from one part of space to another after 
 having been ejected from its original material source. 
 Both the free electron and the vibrant ether-corpuscle, the 
 one in the lightning-flash, the other in the sunbeam, have 
 been violently disrupted from their association with matter 
 and sent speeding through space; but they had previously 
 existed in matter, and, indeed, are its originating constitu- 
 ents. In a word, all matter may be said to be formed out 
 of light in the depths of space. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton formed, but did not publish, a broad 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 53 
 
 general conception which is somewhat allied to the theory 
 presented in my paper: "What becomes of the Light of 
 the Stars?" He thought that there must be some sort 
 of interstellar atmosphere of an attenuated substance, the 
 "food of the sun and planets. . . . Thus perhaps the whole 
 frame of nature may be nothing but various contextures 
 of some certain setherial spirits or vapors, condensed as 
 it were by precipitation";* but this substance was not our 
 so-called ether, nor did he attempt to define either the 
 nature or the activities of this universal medium. His "light- 
 corpuscles" were in no sense the components of a universal at- 
 mosphere. 
 
 Swedenborg went much farther and labored strenuously at 
 the herculean task of devising a system of interrelated media 
 whose particles should be constituted on mechanical principles, 
 while answering at the same time as a basis for various physical 
 forces. Mathematically, he was poorly equipped for the solu- 
 tion of the problem, but as a philosopher he had no superior, 
 and some of his results are in extraordinary agreement with 
 recent scientific discoveries. Such are his ascription of lumi- 
 nous and electric functions to the ether, and his teaching that 
 the ether is not the same as the interstellar atmosphere; and 
 though he was on a wrong track in supposing that gravity re- 
 sults from the interplay of limited vortices of ether attached to 
 sun and planets, he approached the truth in another way; for 
 the electron which is so closely related to the ether, is now seen 
 to be the first gravitational unit ; and even the idea that gravity 
 is produced by the mutual pressure of interpenetrating vortices 
 has a foundation if the theory be transferred from the ether 
 to the aura, or to the "purer ether" of the preceding quotation, 
 and if the vortices are given galactic dimensions. In fact, 
 though I arrived at my conclusion in another way, I now see 
 that eventually Swedenborg probably reached a somewhat 
 similar general conception (in the posthumous passage already 
 quoted). 
 
 'Newton's Letters, etc. Philosophical Mag. (3) Vol. XXIX, p. 
 190, 1846. 
 
54 THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 
 
 Professor R. W. Brown* concludes that Swedenborg was 
 probably misled into his error of supposing that there are solar 
 and planetary ethereal vortices of opposite sorts which act and 
 react, through his having noticed that the satellites move faster 
 than the surfaces of their planets, but that the planets revolve 
 in their orbits more slowly than the sun's superficial rotational 
 velocity. Instead of attributing this fact to the action of two 
 kinds of vortices, one moving swiftest at the circumference, the 
 other swiftest at the center, it is more reasonable to see in this a 
 reminiscence of the past history of these bodies, and to infer 
 that the planets have developed from the sun successively, or 
 from within, and show their relation to the central body of 
 their parent and to his waning powers in this way ; but that the 
 satellites have come from without, thus by capture, and exhibit 
 a wholly different relation. 
 
 In further elucidation of this subject, may be mentioned a 
 passage from Swedenborg's "Economy of the Soul's King- 
 dom" (Vol. I, n. 299).: "There are three species of motion, 
 namely: (i) local or translate ry motion; (2) undulatory or 
 modificatory motion; (3) axillary or central motion. There is, 
 moreover, (4) animatory, or alternately expanding and con- 
 tracting motion; and to this may be added (5) conatus or ef- 
 fort, which is a perpetual tendency to motion." 
 
 The separate consideration of "three species of motion," and 
 then the addition of yet a fourth kind, indicates that the latter 
 is thought to be peculiar, or somewhat apart from the obvious 
 sorts of motion. This would apply precisely to the pulsating 
 movements of the electrons from which gravitation presumably 
 arises. These movements can never be observed directly, but 
 must be inferred from their effects. 
 
 The final mention of a fifth species which seems to be identi- 
 cal with the most modern conception of what we now call 
 "energy," leads to the recognition of a variety of hidden, in- 
 terior, or "potential" movements which also have to be inferred 
 
 *In The Journal of Education, published at Bryn Athyn, Pa., 
 Vol. XV, p. 148, April, 1916. 
 
THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER 55 
 
 from what they do. It is by the eye of reason that we must 
 penetrate more deeply into the hidden recesses of nature. 
 
 Having now viewed our subject from various sides, we 
 are in a position to say that, according to present light, 
 the free ether consists of spherical elastic particles, while the 
 electrons are cored vortices whose rigid surfaces are every- 
 where rotating with the velocity of light; that the ether, in 
 so far as it is atmospheric, appears to consist not so much 
 of a single atmosphere, but rather of innumerable conden- 
 sations of the universal atmosphere around the electrons 
 from which it is thrown off in radiant emission; that the 
 ether penetrates the structure of all material forms, but 
 with diverse degrees of freedom according to electrical 
 properties, and is everywhere closely associated with 
 matter, sharing with the electrons in a gravitative pulsatory 
 motion of its individual particles by which both are con- 
 tinually connected with the source of their sustenance in 
 the universal aura, and having besides, when free, a peculiar 
 oscillatory motion of its own; that in this way the tiny 
 electrons are most intimately conjoined with the vast 
 galactic spirals and like them endure for ages, while the 
 light of the stars, though dimmed, is not extinguished after 
 traveling for millions of years; but as light-bearer, the 
 ether is not an atmosphere, but an emanation of discrete 
 particles, images of vibrating electrons, involving in their 
 inception least quanta of energy, formed out of the elec- 
 tronic or intra-atomic "atmospheres," and possessing in- 
 numerable varieties of specific vibrant form which reflect 
 the electronic motions at epochal moments of perturbation 
 and inversion, and which are accompanied by electro- 
 magnetic fields of force in the universal aura. These ex- 
 tended fields interpenetrate and sometimes interfere. This 
 is an apparently simple statement, but without the discussion 
 which precedes, it would be unintelligible. 
 
 WESTWOOD ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY, 
 WESTWOOD, MASSACHUSETTS, 
 May 27, 1918. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 1939 
 
 LD 21-20m-5, '39 (9269s) 
 
RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 4459 
 
 TO ^- 202 Main Library 
 
 LOAN PERIOD 1 
 HOME USE 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 
 
 Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date. 
 
 Books may be Renewed by calling 642-3405. 
 
 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW 
 
 
 
 
 LIBRARY USE~( 
 
 WLY 
 
 
 
 MAR o r*\ 10 
 
 on 
 
 
 
 
 yy 
 
 
 
 UIRCULATION C 
 
 EPT. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 F : D 
 
 
 i ' / P 
 
 
 
 It.HK ^ U 
 
 1989 
 
 
 CIRCULATK 
 
 !N UtHI. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 
 
 FORM NO. DD6 BERKELEY, CA 94720 
 
 $