GENERAL MEETING. 59 
It therefore seems to me immaterial to result which of the two 
modes of passing the infinitesimal focus is the true one. In either 
case the distance at passage is infinitesimal, and the force may be 
as near infinity as the facts require it to be assigned. The normal 
or rectilineal enzounter is here excluded from supposition. In that 
case, under repulsive stress, as postulated by Boscovich, the recoil 
would be rectilineal and opposite, without breach of continuity. 
Under attractive stress, with finite volume of the atomic mass, 
penetration would ensue as before shown; but without dimension 
or repulsion we have an insoluble condition, although the occur- 
rence would be infinitely rare. Only one pair of elements is here 
considered. In all real encounters, whether of masses or molecules, 
the effect is a vast resultant, but should not be different in kind 
from that of the elements; that is, hyperbolic or expansive between 
alien systems under motion. As the number of elements ordinarily 
engaged could not be represented by any numerical places of arabic 
notation for which we have names, we see the hopelessness of stat- 
ing the problem mathematically. I therefore do not presume to 
Hr, 2. 
This encounter represents only one element of the molecule, of which 
myriads are engaged at every recoil of molecules, not to speak of solids. 
It is thus seen that the mesh constituting the molecule is ordinarily impen- 
_ etrable to other meshes. If the curve F G be allowed to represent the out- 
line of the molecule, the limb of the solid to which it belongs, say a buck- 
shot, will be represented by the Sierra Nevada, or the Andes, and its diam- 
eter would be measurably represented by that of the earth, as approximately 
shown by Sir Wm. Thompson in the case of a drop of water. 
