modification will rather be of a constructive character, than a
destructive one. There may also be certain objections to meet and
explain away when we deal with the phenomena of light, heat, and
electricity, and Gravitation, and the part which the aetherial atom
plays in those phenomena, but these objections I hope to meet and answer
as they arise.

The atomicity of the Aether has already been suggested by such
scientists as Clerk Maxwell, Lord Kelvin, Dr. Larmor, and Professors
Lodge and J. J. Thompson. Clerk Maxwell, in an article on "Action at a
Distance,"[3] referring to the atomicity of the Aether, writes: "Its
minute parts may have rotatory as well as vibratory motions, and the
axes of rotation may form those lines of magnetic force which extend in
unbroken continuity into regions which no eye has seen." I premise that
I will conclusively prove that this statement finds its literal
fulfilment in the theory of the Aether that will be developed in this
work.

Lord Kelvin, in several articles on "Vortex Motion" in the Philosophical
Magazines of recent years, has mathematically dealt with the Aether from
the atomic standpoint, and has endeavoured to prove that the Aether
medium is composed of vortex rings, but he was unable to come to any
satisfactory conclusion. With the theory that Aether is matter, and
therefore possesses mass, his conception is now brought within the range
of physical explanation, as well as mathematical calculation.

Dr. Larmor, in his _Aether and Matter_, has successfully applied the
principle of the atomicity to the Aether, on what is termed the
"Electron" basis. He states that an electron is nothing more or less
than "a point singularity in the electro-dynamic and optical Aether." So
that our aetherial atom is practically synonymous with Dr. Larmor's
electron. Again, Dr. Larmor, in the same work, states that "the
atomicity of electricity is coming within the scope of direct
experiment."[4] But Professor Lodge, in his _Modern Views of
Electricity_, states that "the Aether is composed of positive and
negative electricity, the combination of these two forming the Aether
medium."[5] Now, if the Aether is composed of positive and negative
electricity, and the atomicity of electricity is coming within the scope
of direct experiment, it follows as a matter of necessity that the
atomicity of Aether and the atomicity of electricity are one and the
same, and therefore the atomicity of Aether is comin