Abstract
AT the anniversary meeting of the Victoria Institute on June 29, Sir G. G. Stokes delivered his presidential address. After a few introductory remarks on the functions of the Institute, he said:—“I intend to bring before you tonight a subject which the study of light has caused me to think a good deal about: I refer to the nature and properties of the so-called luminiferous ether. This subject is, in one respect, specially fascinating, scientifically considered. It lies, we may say, in an especial manner on the borderland between what is known and what is unknown. In the study of it it is quite conceivable that great discoveries may be made, and, in fact, great discoveries have already been made, and I may say even quite recently, and we do not at present know how much additional light on the system of Nature may be in store for the men of Science; possibly even in the near future, possibly not until many generations have passed away. I will assume, as what is familiarly known to you all, and what is well established by methods into which I will not enter, that the heavenly bodies are at an immense distance from our earth. More especially is this the case with the fixed stars. Their distance is so enormous that even when we take as a base line, so to speak, the diameter of the earth's orbit, which we know to be about 184 millions of miles, the apparent displacement of the stars due to parallax is so minute as almost to elude our investigation. Nevertheless that distance is more or less accurately determined in the case of a few of the fixed stars. But the vast majority, as we have every reason to believe, are at such an enormous distance that even this method fails with them.”
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The Luminiferous Ether. Nature 48, 306–308 (1893). https://doi.org/10.1038/048306a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/048306a0