NEW MECHANICS AND ASTRONOMY. 237 



But experience shows us that these molecules attract 

 one another in accordance with Newtonian gravitation, 

 and that being so we can form two hypotheses. We 

 may suppose that gravitation has no connexion with 

 electrostatic attraction, that it is due to an entirely 

 different cause, and that it is merely superimposed 

 upon it ; or else we may admit that there is no pro- 

 portion between the attractions and the charges, and 

 that the attraction exercised by a charge + i upon a 

 charge - i is greater than the mutual repulsion of two 

 charges + i or of two charges - i. 



In other words, the electric field produced by the 

 positive electrons and that produced by the negative 

 electrons are superimposed and remain distinct. The 

 positive electrons are more sensitive to the field pro- 

 duced by the negative electrons than to the field pro- 

 duced by the positive electrons, and contrariwise for 

 the negative electrons. It is clear that this hypothesis 

 somewhat complicates electrostatics, but makes it 

 include gravitation. It was, in the main, Franklin's 

 hypothesis. 



Now, what happens if the electrons are in motion ? 

 The positive electrons will create a disturbance in the 

 ether, and will give rise in it to an electric field and a 

 magnetic field. The same will be true of the negative 

 electrons. The electrons, whether positive or negative, 

 then receive a mechanical impulse by the action of 

 these different fields. In the ordinary theory, the 

 electro-magnetic field due to the motion of the positive 

 electrons exercises, upon two electrons of opposite 

 sign and of the same absolute charge, actions that are 

 equal and of opposite sign. W'e may, then, without 

 impropriety make no distinction between the field due 



