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electricity, but has some features in common with it. In order to obtain a theory of this kind, I shall start from an idea that has been suggested long ago by Mossotti and has been afterwards accepted by Wilhelm Weber and Zöllner.
According to these physicists, every particle of ponderable matter consists of two oppositely electrified particles. Th us, between two particles of matter, there will be four electric forces, two attractions between the charges of different, and two repulsions between those of equal signs. Mossotti supposes the attractions to be somewhat greater than the repulsions, the difference between the two being precisely what we call gravitation. It is easily seen that such a difference might exist in cases where an action of a specific electric nature is not exerted.
Now, if the form of this theory is to be brought into harmony with the present state of electrical science, we must regard the four forces of Mossotti as the effect of certain states in the aether which are called forth by the positive and negative ions.
A positive ion, as well as a negative one, is the centre of a dielectric displacement, and, in treating of electrical phenomena, these two displacements are considered as being of the same nature, so that, if in opposite directions and of equal magnitude, they wholly destroy each other.
If gravitation is to be included in the theory, this view must be modified. Indeed, if the actions exerted by positive and negative ions depended on vector-quantities of the same kind, in such a way that all phenomena in the neighbourhood of a pair of ions with opposite charges were determined by the resulting vector, then electric actions could only be absent, if this resulting vector were 0, but, if such were the case, no other actions could exist; a gravitation, i.e. a force in the absence of an electric field, would be impossible.
I shall therefore suppose that the two disturbances in the aether, produced by positive and negative ions, are of a somewhat different nature, so that, even if they are represented in a diagram by equal and opposite vectors, the state of the aether is not the natural one. This corresponds in a sense to Mossotti's idea that positive and negative charges differ from each other to a larger extent, than may be expressed by the signs + and –.
After having attributed to each of the two states an independent and separate existence, we may assume that, though both able to act on positive and negative ions, the one has more power over the positive particles and the other over the negative ones. This difference
