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XXII, -ON THE ATTEMPT LATELY MADE BY M. LAURENT 

 TO EXPLAIN, ON MECHANICAL PRINCIPLES, THE 

 PHENOMENON OF CIRCULAR POLARIZATION IN 

 LIQUIDS. 



[Abstract of a Communication addressed to the BRITISH ASSOCIATION, 

 in the year 1843. Report, p. 7.] 



THE Author showed that this attempt had not succeeded. M. 

 Laurent supposes the particles of the luminiferous ether not 

 to be simply material points, but to have dimensions which 

 are not insensible when compared with their distances; and on 

 this hypothesis he deduces a system of differential equations, 

 the integrals of which he conceives to represent the phenome- 

 non in question. The integrals given by M. Laurent are, 

 however, altogether erroneous, though this circumstance was 

 not noticed by M. Cauchy in the remarks and comments 

 which he made on M. Laurent's Memoir. The true integrals 

 of these equations (supposing the equations to be correctly 

 deduced) were shown by Professor Mac Cullagh to indicate 

 motions of the ether which do not correspond to the observec 

 phenomenon. The account of M. Laurent's theory, with M. 

 Cauchy's remarks upon it, will be found in the eighteenth 

 volume of the Comptes Eendus of the Academy of Science 

 of Paris. 



