The herald., 1898-03-09
THE "UNsoLvED PROBLEM"
A Paper Read Before the Academy of
Sciences

The regular monthly meeting of the
Academy of Sciences was held last even
ing at 800 South Broadway. with a good
attendance. After the disposal of the usual
routine business, w. II. knight spoke in
appreciation and tender terms of the late
DR.. Praeger who was a valued and high
ly esteemed member and officer of the
academy. Mr.. Knight spoke of DR.. Prae-
gers upright character as man and cit
iZen, and his high attachments as scholar
and surgeon. He then offered resolutions
embodying these sentiments, which were
unanimously adopted.
Vice-President Abbot Kinney announced
that a special meeting of the academy will
be held in the latter part of the month
which will be addressed by Prof. Jordan
of Stanford university on "Pelagic Seal
ing in America" At the next regular
meeting the subject of street Paving in
Cities will be discussed. Prof. Macleod
who will be one of the speakers, is an ex-
pert on street paving, and was so en-
ployed in the city Of Philadelphia and in
Scotland. The meeting was then turned
over to the astronomical section, and the
speaker of the evening, President w. A.
Spalding, read an able paper, entitled "The
Unsolved Problem
The problem to be solved is the law of
eravitation, which. said the speaker, acts
on every particle of matter in the universe.
1.-THE nearest approximation which our
modern scientist can give of the processes
by which it acts is, that action is propa-
gated by means of vibrations In the ether,
an infinitely elastic, non-compressible me-
dium, in which all matter is immersed and
permeated. We know that gravitation acts
between the sun and the planets and their
satellites; that light and heat are trans
mitted from the sun to the earth through
this interplanetary medium; that vibra-
tions of light travel to US from the farthest
star in the armament, and we have no al
tentative but to attribute the same prop
critics of transmitting vibrations to the
ether that lies beyond our solar system
1T is conceded that there is a continued
electric action between the sun and the
earth. and presumably between the sun
and all of the planets. This flow is con-
stant and presents an interchange OF force
between the great dynamic center of our
system and of all the bodies that swing
around it. The interplanetary ether is a
most perfect conductor of electricity.
transmitting its vibrations with so little
friction that there is not enough waste
energy diffused in the ether to either light
or warm the interplanetary space If there
be an incalculable number of electric cur
rents passing between the sun and the
earth, what conclusion is more natural
than that there should be longitudinal
lHaSHetlc elecL Win edcH current, tnat
when the magnetic effects of this vast
number of currents are massed together
they should form a power strong enough
to hold this world in its orbit about the
sun, and that magnetism and eravitation
are one original manifestation of energy ?
"It is climax towards which science
has been tending for many years to resolve
matter into one original element, and that
element into one original manifestation
tnh ic OLE ri Nfucrr tfcv,,
tation are but different names for one
grand phenomenon attributable to cleo
tricity as an antecedent and primary phe-
nomenon."