For, if there were such
a thing as an ether, it must of course be some form of matter; nobody
ever claimed for it the character of motion or force. If it be
considered as matter, then, we are confronted with new difficulties; for
all matter must exert gravitation. Weight is our sole test of the very
existence of matter; it is the balance which has proved that nothing
ever disappears. Imponderable matter is no more possible than a
triangular ellipse. Away, then, with such a mischief-breeding
conception! Let this last-surviving fetich be ousted from the fair
temple of inorganic science. Undulations have been measured and counted;
quantitative relations, like those expressed in Joule's law, have been
established between them; but an "ether" has never yet been the object
of human ken.
We have expressed ourselves thus emphatically upon this all-important
point, in order to warn the reader of Dr. Youmans's book against drawing
conclusions which the author himself evidently does not mean to convey.
No clear ideas can ever be entertained in physics until this anomalous
"ether" is excommunicated; and therefore we wish it had been banished
from this excellent treatise.
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