SIDELIGHTS ON RELATIVITY

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under consideration are diminished.

It is true that this proposed physical interpretation of geometry
breaks down when applied immediately to spaces of sub-molecular
order of magnitude. But nevertheless, even in questions as
to the constitution of elementary particles, it retains part of
its importance. For even when it is a question of describing the
electrical elementary particles constituting matter, the attempt
may still be made to ascribe physical importance to those ideas
of fields which have been physically defined for the purpose
of describing the geometrical behaviour of bodies which are large
as compared with the molecule. Success alone can decide as to the
justification of such an attempt, which postulates physical reality
for the fundamental principles of Riemann's geometry outside of the
domain of their physical definitions. It might possibly turn out
that this extrapolation has no better warrant than the extrapolation
of the idea of temperature to parts of a body of molecular order