phenomena do
we find similar conditions which exist between the Aether and the earth?
Such conditions are alone to be found between the atmosphere and the
earth. The analogy between the atmosphere and the earth, and the Aether
and the earth is very striking, as the following comparisons will prove.

The atmosphere (when pure) is invisible, so is the Aether. The
atmosphere is atomic, the Aether is also atomic. Both are subject to the
same laws of elasticity and density, and both are gravitative, according
to our conception of the Aether. Now what is the effect of any large
revolving body on a liquid or gaseous medium surrounding that revolving
body?

If experience is any guide, we learn that the motion of the revolving
body is either partially or entirely transmitted to the liquid or
gaseous medium surrounding such a body. So far as our experience teaches
us anything, it teaches us that to that rule there is no exception, and
no experiment can be devised of any body revolving in water or a gaseous
medium as air, without that body imparting its rotation to the water or
the air. The atmosphere in relation to the earth is no exception to this
rule. We know that the earth has an equatorial circumference of about
24,000 miles, and that it revolves on its axis once every day, so that
at the equator the surface of the earth is whirling round in space at
the rate of 1000 miles per hour.

Try to conceive what the result would be if the atmosphere were
stationary at the earth's surface in the equatorial regions. It would
mean that any body on its surface would be whirled round at that rate,
while the atmosphere, being stationary, would exert a power equal to a
wind travelling at the rate of 1000 miles per hour.

Under the influence of such a hurricane, nothing could exist on the
surface of the earth at the equator, if the earth revolved on its axis
and the atmosphere did not participate in that motion. But the
atmosphere is gravitative, and being gravitative, it is not only held
bound to the earth as it revolves on its axis in its onward rush through
space, but accepts the revolving motion of the earth, with the result
that as the earth revolves on its axis, the atmosphere revolves also.

Thus a balloon at the equator if allowed to rise several hundred feet
above the surface could remain comparatively stationary if held by a
rope to overcome its tendency to rise, whereas such an event would be
impossible if the atmosphere fai