1875.] (>11 [Chase. 



to Earth's orbit, a distance equivalent to | Neptune's mean radius vec- 

 tor, or to tlie true length of the linear pendulum of Sun's outermost 

 planet ; the time-ratio of Earth's rotation to Jupiter's revolution, is the 

 same as the ratio of Sun's radius to the primary pendulum. 



Combining these several results with the accordances of electrical velo- 

 city and chemical affinity, which have been discovered by "Weber and Kohl- 

 rausch, Thomson, Clerk Maxwell, and Edlund, and with the explosive en- 

 ergy of hydi'ogen, which brings all chemical attraction into simple corre- 

 lation with gravitating attraction, we find a profound scientific truth in the 

 doctrine that the first act of creation was the Divine command, Let 



THERE BE LiGHT. 



La Place's calculation that gravitating action involved a velocity at 

 least six million times as great as that of light, may, perhaps, as Presi- 

 dent Lovering well suggested in his Hartford address, requii-e revision in 

 order to make allowance for additional data. In a substance, either of 

 infinite elasticity, or of no density, (and, therefore, spiritual?) undula- 

 tions would be propagated with infinite velocity. It is easily conceivable, 

 either that the transverse vibrations of luminous waves, which have been 

 studied, are accompanied by co-ordinate undulations of much greater 

 speed, which have hitherto escaped notice, or that there is some other 

 kind of motion to be considered than that of simple undulation. In a 

 medium for the transmission of force, endowed with immense elasticity 

 and with such slight mobility of particles as Fresnel supposed, may there 

 not be a quasi rigidity in "lines of force " when compared with such low 

 ■stresses as those of tidal influence, which will account both for the rapid- 

 ity of gravitating action, and for the more than steel-like firmness which 

 Sir Wm. Thomson attributes to the Earth's mass? The greatest possible 

 manifestation of gravitating velocity in the solar system, ^^2 gr, is equiv- 

 alent to that communicated by virtual fall, at Sun's surface, in 2255 sec- 

 onds. Since this velocity is only ^s^.y as great as the velocity of light, 



and since there are 103 (10)1^ waves in 2255 seconds, only of the 



501 (lO)^** 



velocity of its own transmission need be imparted by each wave for pro- 

 ducing the ultimate aggregate of gravitating motion. 



Looking still further into the internal constitution of the solar system, 

 we find that the angular velocity of revolution at twice Neptune's distance, 

 equals the angular velocity of rotation due to a solar i-adius extending to 

 Mercury's mean distance, a coincidence suggesting probable asteroidal or 

 planetary masses beyond Neptune in a way similar to my harmonic indi- 

 cation of matter within Mercury's orbit, revolving in a time, which was 

 subsequently confirmed by the Sun-spot observations of De La Rue, Stew- 

 art, and Loewy. Inasmuch as the velocity communicated by infinite fall 

 to any radius vector, equals the velocity of circular revolution at half 

 that radius, this accordance seems to have fixed the limits of the planet- 

 ary belts. Within those limits, planetary positions may be referred to 

 simple circular pendulums, which are so related that their harmonic vi- 

 A. p. S. — VOL. XIV. 4a 



