Lord Kelvin, in several articles on "Vortex Motion" in the Philosophical Magazines of recent years, has mathematically dealt with the Aether from the atomic standpoint, and has endeavoured to prove that the Aether medium is composed of vortex rings, but he was unable to come to any satisfactory conclusion. With the theory that Aether is matter, and therefore possesses mass, his conception is now brought within the range of physical explanation, as well as mathematical calculation. Dr. Larmor, in his _Aether and Matter_, has successfully applied the principle of the atomicity to the Aether, on what is termed the "Electron" basis. He states that an electron is nothing more or less than "a point singularity in the electro-dynamic and optical Aether." So that our aetherial atom is practically synonymous with Dr. Larmor's electron. Again, Dr. Larmor, in the same work, states that "the atomicity of electricity is coming within the scope of direct experiment."[4] But Professor Lodge, in his _Modern Views of Electricity_, states that "the Aether is composed of positive and negative electricity, the combination of these two forming the Aether medium."[5] Now, if the Aether is composed of positive and negative electricity, and the atomicity of electricity is coming within the scope of direct experiment, it follows as a matter of necessity that the atomicity of Aether and the atomicity of electricity are one and the same, and therefore the atomicity of Aether is coming within the scope of direct experiment. Professor J. J. Thompson, who has also attacked the problem of the atomicity of electricity, speaks of "corpuscles" which are the actual carriers of the positive and negative electricity, in the atoms of the various elements. These corpuscles therefore indicate the fact that electricity has an atomic basis. Now if there is any such identity between Aether and electricity, as there undoubtedly is, and electricity has an atomic basis, then the atomicity of the Aether follows as a matter of course, otherwise we shall have a medium composed of atoms which is itself not atomic, which conclusion is absurd and therefore unphilosophical. So that the most recent researches into electricity confirm and establish the atomicity of the Aether. [Footnote 3: _Collected Works_, by Niven.] [Footnote 4: Preface to _Aether and Matter_.] [Footnote 5: Page 348.] ART. 45. _Aether is Gravitative._--Young, in the _Philosophical Trans._ of 1802, in regard to this question, states in his Fourth Hypothesis: "All material bodies have an attraction for the aetherial medium, by means of which it is accumulated within their substance, and for a small distance around them, in a state of greater density, but not greater elasticity." He adds that "this fourth hypothesis is opposed to that of Newton's."