1883.] ^«^< [Chase. 



The greatest deviations are at Earth's secular aphelion or locus of in- 

 cipient subsidence, and at Mercury's secular perihelion or locus of in- 

 cipient projection ; the difference in each case being about five per cent. 

 (1.0493 and .9507), and the mean difference being zero. The mean devi- 

 ation of the four dense planets is only J^ of one per cent. The mean dif- 

 ference in the light belt is about § of one per cent., the greatest being that 

 of Uranus, 2.5 per cent. The exactness of Jupiter's influence on Asteroids 

 120 and 61 is remarkable. 



372. Conservative Reaction. 



It may be readily seen that all the indications of the foregoing note point to 

 a rotary vis viva of the several planets, reacting against a similar solar vis viva, 

 and having no corresponding indications in opposition to the Sun. These 

 indications are of a character like those wliich underlie the investigations 

 of George H. Darwin, but their influence upon Sun is accelerating, instead 

 of retarding, while any gwasi-viscous tidal influence is retarding, instead 

 of accelerating. If the two kinds of influence represent equal actions and 

 reactions, the result would be a precise conservation of centripetal and ra- 

 diant energies, without any solar expansion or contraction, other than in 

 cyclic alternations, within limits of an order of magnitude like that of 

 planetary eccentricities. The fundamental equality of Note 321 shows 

 that Sun's centripetal rotating energy is wholly photodynamic. We may 

 readily believe that the solar rupturing and expanding tendencies of 

 planetary rotation represent a purely photodynamic reaction on gravi- 

 tating action, which is exactly equivalent and opposite. The evidences 

 of such equivalence in cosmical aggregations should encourage us to look, 

 with increasing confidence, for further evidences in gethereal oscillations 

 of various kinds, and especially in the electric and thermal undulations 

 which are indicated by the fundamental equality. Edlund's researches 

 point to electric and thermal equivalence of action and reaction, as plainly 

 as Maxwell's point to electric and photic equivalence, and as my own point 

 to a like photic, electric, thermal and gravitating equivalence. 



373. J'he Testimony of Mars. 



The many indications w^hich I have found, of subsidence- orbital rela- 

 tions between Mars and the asteroidal belt, are supplemented by the direct 

 and reciprocal influences (2.5 and 1.5; see Note 370), of solar photody- 

 namic rotation upon the secular apsides and the mean locus of Mars, as 

 well as upon intermediate positions. 



