The ethereal origin of matter has been advocated by M. Saigey, Dr. Macvicar, and others. In a lecture by Professor Oliver Lodge, delivered at the London Institution in December 1882, he also advocates the ethereal origin of matter. “As far as we know,” to state his views in his own words, “this ether appears to be a perfectly homogeneous, incompressible, continuous body, incapable of being resolved into simple elements or atoms; it is, in fact, continuous, not molecular. There is no other body of which we can say this, and hence the properties of ether must be somewhat different from those of ordinary matter.” ... “One naturally asks, is there any such clear distinction to be drawn between ether and matter as we have hitherto tacitly assumed? May they not be different modifications, or even manifestations, of the same thing?” He then adopts Sir William Thomson’s theory of vortex atoms, into the details of which I need not here enter. In conclusion, says Professor Lodge, “I have now endeavoured to introduce you to the simplest conception of the material universe which has yet occurred to man—the conception that it is of one universal substance, perfectly homogeneous and continuous, and simple in structure, extending to the farthest limits of space of which we have any knowledge, existing equally everywhere: some portions either at rest or in simple irrotational motion, transmitting the undulations which we call light; other portions in rotational motion—in vortices, that is—and differentiated permanently from the rest of the medium by reason of this motion. “These whirling portions constitute what we call matter; their motion gives them rigidity, and of them our bodies and all other material bodies with which we are acquainted are built up. “One continuous substance filling all space, which can vibrate as light; which can be sheared into positive and negative electricity; which in whirls constitutes matter; and which transmits by continuity, and not by impact, every action and reaction of which matter is capable. This is the modern view of ether and its functions.”[73] [Footnote 73: _Nature_, February 1, 1883, p. 330.] There is this objection to Professor Lodge’s theory: it is purely hypothetical. The vortex atoms are not only hypothetical, but the substance out of which these atoms are assumed to be formed is also itself hypothetical. We have no certain evidence that such a medium as is thus supposed exists, or that a medium possessing the qualities attributed to it could exist. In fact, we have here one hypothesis built upon another.