THE remarkable fertility shown by the new idea, based on the experimental fact of the discontinuous corpuscular structure of electrical charges, appears to be the most striking characteristic of the recent progress in electricity.
The consequences extend through all parts of the old physics; especially in electromagnetism, in optics, in radiant heat; they throw a new light even on the fundamental ideas of the Newtonian mechanics, and have revived the old atomistic ideas and caused them to be lifted from the rank of hypotheses to that of principles, owing to the proper relation which the laws of electrolysis have established between the discontinuous structure of matter and that of electricity.
Without seeking here to run through the whole field of their applications, I hope to indicate upon what solid foundations, both experimental and theoretical, rests at present the notion of the electron so fundamental to the new physics; to indicate the points which seem to require more complete light, and to show how vast is the synthesis which we can hope to attain, a synthesis whose main lines only are fixed to-day.
Under actual and provisional form, this synthesis constitutes an admirable instrument of research, and owing to it the questions extend in all directions. There is there a kind of New America, full of wealth yet unknown, where one can breathe freely, which invites all our activities, and which can teach many things to the Old World.
