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No one now will venture to deny its possibility as strongly as it was denied a generation ago. It will also lead one to be less confident in the theory that matter is indestructible. Assuming the vortex-ring theory of atoms to be true, if in any way such a ring could be cut or broken, there would not remain two or more fragments of a ring or atom.
A vortex-ring, for example, in such a fluid, would forever preserve its own rotation, and would thus forever retain its peculiar individuality, being, as it were, marked off from its neighbour vortex-rings. Upon this mechanical truth Sir William Thomson based his wonderfully suggestive theory of the constitution of matter.
It was at length thought to be impossible, and the attempt to do it an absurdity. Lately, however, telescopic observation of what is going on in nebulæ, which has already been referred to, has somewhat modified ideas of what is possible and impossible in that direction. It is certainly possible roughly to conceive how such a structure as a vortex-ring in the ether might be formed.
Supposing, now, that we adopt provisionally the vortex theory, the great power of which is well shown by the consideration just mentioned, we must not forget that it is absolutely essential to the indestructibleness of the material atom that the universal fluid in which it has an existence as a vortex-ring should be entirely destitute of friction.
One is inclined to inquire for the evidence we have as to the constitution of matter or of atoms. There is only one hypothesis to-day that has any degree of probability; that is, the vortex-ring theory, which describes an atom as being a vortex-ring of ether in the ether.
Fifty years ago, such a suggestion would have been scouted as a revival of the dreams of the alchemists. At present, it may be said to be the burning question of physico-chemical science. In fact, the so-called 'vortex-ring' hypothesis is a very serious and remarkable attempt to deal with material units from a point of view which is consistent with the doctrine of evolution.
Once a given kind of energy is in it, it does not change; hence for the apparition of a form of energy, like the first vortex-ring, there must have been not only energy, but some other agency capable of transforming that energy into a permanent structure. To the best of our knowledge to-day, the ether would be absolutely helpless.
In the latter, only the form of the motion need be destroyed to completely obliterate every trace of the atom. In the former, there would need to be the destruction of both substance and energy, for it is certain, for reasons yet to be attended to, that the ether is saturated with energy. One may, without mechanical difficulties, imagine a vortex-ring destroyed.
If such a line of rotations in the ether were flexible, and the two ends should come together, there is reason for thinking they would weld together, in which case the structure would become a vortex-ring and be as durable as any other.
Let it be granted that an atom is a vortex-ring of ether in the ether, then the state of being in ring rotation would suffice to differentiate that part of the ether from the rest, and give to it a degree of individuality not possessed by the rest; and such an atom might be called a state of ether.
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