Possible existence of fractional charges and magnetic monopoles in matter

A model is suggested which explains the discovery of fractional electric charges, in spite of the former failures to find quarks and quark-confinement theories; the model does not need many new assumptions about the fractionally charged particles. According to this model, the fractionally charged particles came from the decomposition of naturally occurring bound pairs of oppositely charged magnetic monopoles. Such bound pairs were suggested by the authors in a recent article in this journal to explain other phenomena