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1903.] ROSENGARTEN—“ FRANKLIN PAPERS.” 165 
gravitation from the stresses which must exist in the ether under the 
supposition of perfect elasticity. 
The use of the principle of least work in investigations regarding 
the ether of space hence leads to negative results, as far as its appli- 
cability is concerned. It indicates, however, the important con- 
clusion that the ether is not an elastic substance in which stresses 
are proportional to deformations, and accordingly studies concern- 
ing it should be based upon other suppositions concerning its 
properties. Since the ether cannot be made the object of experi- 
ment and since all we know concerning it is from rough analogy 
and indirect evidence, negative conclusions are valuable. By suc- 
cessively discussing and rejecting one assumption after another, it 
is possible that in due time properties of the ether may be found 
which will explain not only the inertia and gravitation of matter, 
but also the phenomena of electricity and magnetism. 
LEHIGH UNIVERSITY, SOUTH BETHLEHEM, PA, 
THE ‘‘ FRANKLIN PAPERS”’ IN THE AMERICAN 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 
BY J. G. ROSENGARTEN. 
(Read April 3, 1903.) 
In the collection of this Society there are some seventy large 
folio volumes of ‘‘ Franklin Papers.’’ Franklin left all his papers 
to his grandson, William Temple Franklin, who, after a long inter- 
val, published in London and Philadelphia six volumes of Frank- 
lin’s works. Of course, this represented but a small part of his 
papers. Those used in the preparation of Temple Franklin’s 
edition are now the property of the United States, which has never 
yet printed a Calendar of them. Temple Franklin selected from 
his grandfather’s papers those that he thought suitable for publica- 
tion, and left the rest in charge of his friend, Charles Fox, to 
whom he bequeathed them, and Charles Fox’s heirs, in turn, after 
a long lapse of years, presented them to the American Philosophi- 
cal Society, in whose custody they have remained ever since. They 
have been roughly classified, and are bound in a rude and careless 
way. Under the present efficient Librarian, Dr. Hays, a Calendar 
is being made as fast as the limited means at his disposal will per- 
