Making of man : a study in evolution / by Sir Oliver Lodge.

  • Oliver Lodge
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Making of man : a study in evolution / by Sir Oliver Lodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    36/194 (page 32)
    friction, imperfect elasticity, degeneration and decay. It is never the bare atoms that we are able to use. We can only operate on very complex molecules, the intricate chemical substance called protoplasm; and these molecules of protoplasm are in a state of continual flux; and, like the complex atoms of radioactive substances, aie liable to break down. Indeed it may be through their breaking-down that we derive the energy necessary for our acti\ ities. But there is no imperfection or breaking down in the Ether. It has no friction, its elas¬ ticity is perfect; and all its other properties, so far as we know them, are perfect too. Hence, on the hypothesis of its utilisation, there seems every chance that when we have got rid of our temporary imperfect instru¬ ments, our real existence will be unham¬ pered and perpetual. And through what further stages of development we may pass, we can only guess, or perhaps not even guess. All we can make sure of, by cxpeii ment and observation, is direct testimony concerning the transition from this state of things to the next. Though really the word “ next ” is in¬ appropriate. There is no next ^oild,