keep it in equilibrium, so that when B is present the momentum
in the opposite direction will get the upper hand and A will
move in the direction AB, and will thus be attracted by B.
Similarly, we see that B will be attracted by A. Le Sage proved
that the rate at which momentum was being communicated
to A or B by the passage through them of his corpuscles was
proportional to the product of the masses of A and B, and if the
distance between A and B was large compared with their
dimensions, inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between them; in fact, that the forces acting on them would
obey the same laws as the gravitational attraction between them.
Clerk Maxwell (article “Atom,” Ency. Brit., 9th ed.) pointed
out that this transference of momentum from the ultra-mundane
corpuscles to the body through which they passed involved the
loss of kinetic energy by the corpuscles, and if the loss of momentum
were large enough to account for the gravitational attraction,
the loss of kinetic energy would be so large that if converted into
heat it would be sufficient to keep the body white hot. We need
not, however, suppose that this energy is converted into heat; it
might, as in the case where Röntgen rays are produced by the
passage of electrified corpuscles through matter, be transformed
into the energy of a still more penetrating form of radiation,
which might escape from the gravitating body without heating
it. It is a very interesting result of recent discoveries that the
machinery which Le Sage introduced for the purpose of his
theory has a very close analogy with things for which we have
now direct experimental evidence. We know that small particles
moving with very high speeds do exist, that they possess considerable
powers of penetrating solids, though not, as far as we
know at present, to an extent comparable with that postulated
by Le Sage; and we know that the energy lost by them as they
pass through a solid is to a large extent converted into a still
more penetrating form of radiation, Röntgen rays. In Le Sage’s
theory the only function of the corpuscles is to act as carriers
of momentum, any systems which possessed momentum, moved
with a high velocity and had the power of penetrating solids,
might be substituted for them; now waves of electric and magnetic
force, such as light waves or Röntgen rays, possess momentum,
move with a high velocity, and the latter at any rate possess
considerable powers of penetration; so that we might formulate
a theory in which penetrating Röntgen rays replaced Le Sage’s
corpuscles. Röntgen rays, however, when absorbed do not,
as far as we know, give rise to more penetrating Röntgen rays
as they should to explain attraction, but either to less penetrating
rays or to rays of the same kind.
We have confined our attention in this article to the view that the constitution of matter is electrical; we have done so because this view is more closely in touch with experiment than any other yet advanced. The units of which matter is built up on this theory have been isolated and detected in the laboratory, and we may hope to discover more and more of their properties. By seeing whether the properties of matter are or are not such as would arise from a collection of units having these properties, we can apply to this theory tests of a much more definite and rigorous character than we can apply to any other theory of matter. (J. J. T.)
MATTERHORN, one of the best known mountains (14,782 ft.)
in the Alps. It rises S.W. of the village of Zermatt, and on the
frontier between Switzerland (canton of the Valais) and Italy.
Though on the Swiss side it appears to be an isolated obelisk,
it is really but the butt end of a ridge, while the Swiss slope is not
nearly as steep or difficult as the grand terraced walls of the
Italian slope. It was first conquered, after a number of attempts chiefly on the Italian side, on the 14th of July 1865, by Mr E. Whymper’s party, three members of which (Lord Francis Douglas, the Rev. C. Hudson and Mr Hadow) with the guide, Michel Croz, perished by a slip on the descent. Three days later it was scaled from the Italian side by a party of men from Val Tournanche. Nowadays it is frequently ascended in summer, especially from Zermatt.
MATTEUCCI, CARLO (1811–1868), Italian physicist, was born at Forlì on the 20th of June 1811. After attending the École Polytechnique at Paris, he became professor of physics successively at Bologna (1832), Ravenna (1837) and Pisa (1840). From 1847 he took an active part in politics, and in 1860 was chosen an Italian senator, at the same time becoming inspector-general of the Italian telegraph lines. Two years later he was minister of education. He died near Leghorn on the 25th of June 1868.
He was the author of four scientific treatises: Lezioni di fisica (2 vols., Pisa, 1841), Lezioni sui fenomeni fisicochimici dei corpi viventi (Pisa, 1844), Manuale di telegrafia elettrica (Pisa, 1850) and Cours spécial sur l’induction, le magnetisme de rotation, &c. (Paris, 1854). His numerous papers were published in the Annales de chimie et de physique (1829–1858); and most of them also appeared at the time in the Italian scientific journals. They relate almost entirely to electrical phenomena, such as the magnetic rotation of light, the action of gas batteries, the effects of torsion on magnetism, the polarization of electrodes, &c., sufficiently complete accounts of which are given in Wiedemann’s Galvanismus. Nine memoirs, entitled “Electro-Physiological Researches,” were published in the Philosophical Transactions, 1845–1860. See Bianchi’s Carlo Matteucci e l’Italia del suo tempo (Rome, 1874).
MATTHEW, ST (Μαθθαῖος or Ματθαῖος, probably a
shortened form of the Hebrew equivalent to Theodorus), one of the twelve apostles, and the traditional author of the First Gospel, where he is described as having been a tax-gatherer or customs-officer (τελώνης, x. 3), in the service of the tetrarch Herod. The circumstances of his call to become a follower of Jesus, received as he sat in the “customs house” in one of the towns by the Sea of Galilee—apparently Capernaum (Mark ii. 1, 13), are briefly related in ix. 9. We should gather from the parallel narrative in Mark ii. 14, Luke v. 27, that he was at the time known as “Levi the son of Alphaeus” (compare Simon Cephas, Joseph Barnabas): if so, “James the son of Alphaeus” may have been his brother. Possibly “Matthew” (Yahweh’s gift) was his Christian surname, since two native names, neither being a patronymic, is contrary to Jewish usage. It must be noted, however, that Matthew and Levi were sometimes distinguished in early times, as by Heracleon (c. 170 A.D.), and more dubiously by Origen (c. Celsum, i. 62), also apparently in the Syriac Didascalia (sec. iii.), V. xiv. 14. It has generally been supposed, on the strength of Luke’s account (v. 29), that Matthew gave a feast in Jesus’ honour (like Zacchaeus, Luke xix. 6 seq.). But Mark (ii. 15), followed by Matthew (ix. 10), may mean that the meal in question was one in Jesus’ own home at Capernaum (cf. v. 1). In the lists of the Apostles given in the Synoptic Gospels and in Acts, Matthew ranks third or fourth in the second group of four—a fair index of his relative importance in the apostolic age. The only other facts related of Matthew on good authority concern him as Evangelist. Eusebius (H.E. iii. 24) says that he, like John, wrote only at the spur of necessity. “For Matthew, after preaching to Hebrews, when about to go also to others, committed to writing in his native tongue the Gospel that bears his name; and so by his writing supplied, for those whom he was leaving, the loss of his presence.” The value of this tradition, which may be based on Papias, who certainly reported that “Matthew compiled the Oracles (of the Lord) in Hebrew,” can be estimated only in connexion with the study of the Gospel itself (see below). No historical use can be made of the artificial story, in Sanhedrin 43a, that Matthew was condemned to death by a Jewish court (see Laihle, Christ in the Talmud, 71 seq.). According to the Gnostic Heracleon, quoted by Clement of Alexandria (Strom. iv. 9), Matthew died a natural death. The tradition as to his ascetic diet (in Clem. Alex. Paedag. ii. 16) maybe due to confusion with Matthias (cf. Mart. Matthaei, i.). The earliest legend as to his later labours, one of Syrian origin, places them in the Parthian kingdom, where it represents him as dying a natural death at Hierapolis (= Mabog on the Euphrates). This agrees with his legend as known to Ambrose and Paulinus of Nola, and is the most probable in itself. The legends which make him work with Andrew among the Anthropophagi near the Black Sea, or again in Ethiopia (Rufinus, and Socrates, H.E. i. 19), are due to confusion with Matthias, who from the first was associated in his Acts with Andrew (see M. Bonnet, Acta Apost. apocr., 1898, II. i. 65). Another
