430 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY § 20 



power of the distance may be considered as the first link 

 in the chain by which these may finally be connected 

 together. 



(2) The connection between these constants is ex- 

 emplified in a series of six tables, in which they are all 

 expressed, explicitly or implicitly, in terms of certain well- 

 known constants, and one which is peculiar to this theory, 

 called the Principal Argument. It has not been attempted 

 to adjust these tables empirically (which might easily 

 have been done) so as to obtain the best possible results; 

 they represent rigidly the relation between the six physi- 

 cal constants required by the Theory for an ideal liquid or 

 solid. 



(3) The indications of this theory are in many cases 

 within the limits of errors of observation, and in no case are 

 we led to a result w^iich is not reasonably close to the 

 truth, considering the quantities which have been neg- 

 lected. The same would not have been true if any fun- 

 damental change had been made in the supposition as to 

 the nature of the cohesive force or its rate of variation, 

 the general law for which may, therefore, be considered 

 as established. 



(4) In view of the magnitudes of several of the quanti- 

 ties treated, the approximate agreement of the results pre- 

 cludes any essential error in the formulae. 



(5) In working out the mathematical solution of various 

 problems, we had frequent recourse to certain formulae 

 which were already developed in Maxwell's Electricity 

 and JMagnetism. We have followed, all through, the 

 analogy between the attraction of a number of small mag- 

 netized spheres and the ordinary phenomena of cohesion. 

 The analogy appears to hold in every respect. On the 

 other hand, the laws of the attraction assigned to ordinary 

 unpolarized matter have been proved to be entirely incom- 

 patible with the known facts. 



