( 144 ) 



for the molecule i]i which tlie forces between the two parts of which 

 it is thought to consist, satisfy the conditions, that they are propor- 

 tional with the distance, and at the same time increase proportionally 

 with T. Perhaps we get a more comprehensive conception of a molecule, 

 if we ascribe the forces which keep the atoms together in the molecule 

 not to a mutual attraction of the atoms, but to the action of the 

 general medium by which the atoms are surrounded. The molecules of 

 a gas are free to move inside the space in which they are included 

 and they are kept inside that space only by tiie action of the walls; 

 in the same way it miglu I>c tliat the atoms of a molecule were 

 free to move inside a certain space — the volume of the molecule — 

 and that they are only prevented from separating by an enclosure 

 of ether. Still assuming that h^ — h^ has for all temperatures the 

 same value, we sliould be again obliged to conclude tliat the forces 

 which keep tiie molecuh» intact are proportional with the temperature, 

 but this conclusion would now be much less incomprehensible, 

 xiccording to these suppositio]is it is also i-ational to assume that the 

 force requiretl to split up the molecule into t\N0 atoms is the same 

 for all temperatures. So we should obtain the formula: 



h-h. b-b„ 



^ = 1 - 



'0 



V — b bfj- 



With this equation we have 



J v—b J [b — b^ hj—b^) b 



9 'J 



1 1 ) . b„-b^ b-b„ 



-b„ 



bq — b^ 



The term Avhich must be subtrat-tcd from hiti — has now twice 



'^ h-b, 



the value it had before, but the chief term has remained unchanged. 

 In my further investigation, however, 1 will continue with the dis- 

 cussion of equation (4), because my chief aim is oidj- to investigate 

 the principle consequences of the nearly certainly existing diminutiou 

 of b, independent of the question Avhethei' this diminution is real or 

 only fictitious ; and in doing so I \\\\\ confine myself to a certain 

 conception of the molecule — that ^\ hich leads to equation (4) — 

 as an instance. 



B. The coefficient of dilatation and the coefficient of compres- 

 sibility of liquids. 



Let us again assume the temperature to be so low that p may be 



a 

 neglected compared with — and that we therefore have: 



