ield of electro-magnetic energy surrounding
an electric charge in motion moves with it, and that the vibrations of
light travel through this moving {74} field, instead of through an
ocean of stagnant aether."[4]

One further quotation of singular interest may be added. It is taken
from an address to students by the President of the Institution of
Mining and Metallurgy.[5]

"Twenty years ago," he said, "the idea held that inorganic chemistry
was almost a dead science--dead in the sense of being apparently
completed in many of its aspects, and that its records could be safely
confided to the encyclopaedia.... A modified conception of life is now
becoming co-extensive with the whole range of our experience. Even a
simple inorganic crystal does not spring ready formed from its solvent,
but first passes through phases of granulation and striation comparable
with those which characterise the beginnings of vital growth. Metals
exhibit in some respects phenomena similar to those possessed by
organised beings. Thus, they show fatigue under long continued stress,
and they recover their strength with rest. They are also susceptible
to certain of the poisons which destroy organic life. Matter, broadly,
is no longer merely dead masonry from which the edifice to shelter life
{75} is constructed, but also appears to be the reservoir of that
energy which is developed, altered and drawn into vitality itself....
The indestructibility of matter bids fair to become relegated to the
museum of outworn theories; and with it will probably go our present
conceptions as to the conservation of energy."

It is clear, then, that the tasks awaiting the students of physical
science are likely to be as arduous, and we may hope as full of reward,
as they have been at any time in the past. Meanwhile, it does look as
if there were truth in Mr. Balfour's remark that "Matter is not merely
explained, but is explained away."[6]

[1] The weighing and measuring of the electron were first announced by
Professor Thomson to the British Association meeting at Dover, in 1899.

[2] Sir Oliver Lodge.

[3] Sir Oliver Lodge. _Life and Matter_, p. 28.

[4] Whetham. _The Foundations of Science_, p. 50.

[5] H. L. Sulman, at the Sir John Cass Institute, November 29th, 1911.

[6] Presidential Address to British Association, 1904.

{76}

CHAPTER VIII

LATER SCIENCE (_continued_)

We have spoken of what science has recently been doing in t