136 PR< CEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



of the internal mechanism of the magneton to transfer energy from the 

 oscillation of the electricity on it to the steady current around it. 



/, /', and /" are assumed to be constant, and we shall assume the 

 equilibrium of the ring under the action of (2) to be so stable that for 

 visible and ultraviolet frequencies, the motion of the center of charge 

 is due chiefly to the oscillation of the electricity on the ring, and very 

 little to the motion of the ring as a whole. In the infra-red, the motion 

 of the atom itself will, of course, change the whole character of the 

 oscillation. 



This plan does not agree entirely with Parson's assumptions, which 

 make the magnetons interchange their positions in the atom rather 

 freely; but I doubt if this is a serious difficulty, since even with these 

 assumptions, a strong collision, with its accompanying distortion of 

 the positive sphere, might easily cause considerable changes in their 

 arrangement. 



The damping force (6) is contrary to the laws of the classical mechan- 

 ics as applied to the internal structure of the magneton. But this 

 conflicts with no experimental facts, and, as we have seen, we must 

 expect a violation of these laws somewhere in the absorbing and emit- 

 ting system. The mechanism of this transfer cannot be ordinary 

 electromagnetic induction, because simple considerations of symmetry 

 show that the mutual inductance between these oscillations and the 

 steady current is zero. 



The energy transferred from the oscillations, according to these 

 assumptions and others to be made below, will be found very small 

 compared to the whole magnetic energy of the magneton, which is 

 of the order of magnitude of mc 2 . (This value will be discussed in 

 more detail in a subsequent paper showing why we cannot expect the 

 magnetic properties of the magneton to be detected by experiments on 

 cathode rays or photo-electrons.) Therefore the increase in the veloc- 

 ity of the steady current that is given by this energy must be very 

 small compared with the original velocity, and so will not interfere 

 with the explanation of chemical phenomena by the magnetons. 



Neglecting the electrostatic influence of neighboring molecules, we 

 may say that all the above forces on the electricity must balance, 

 and so must all those on the ring. This gives the equations, 



(1) -fS-f' £" -ml-gk- f k" + rEf = 



(2) - r r + r r = o. 



Combining these, we obtain 



