18S1.] 457 [Chase, 



matiou would be very satisfactory, even without attempting to account 

 for the discrepancy. It is of the same order of magnitude as the orhital 

 projections of the planets, and it represents, very closely, the vis viva of 

 Jupiter's secular apsidal oscillation. For the ordinary thermal equivalent 

 varies as the square of the corresponding velocity, or as the fourth power 

 of orbital velocity. The fourthpowerof 1.0307 is 1.1287 ; Jupiter's secular 



1.06083 



ms viva of projection, according to Stockwell,* is ~c)qQT7 = 1-1296. 



59. Permanency of Standards. 



The three controlling masses, at the nebulous centre, the nucleal centre, 

 and the centre of condensation, exert a combined thermodynamic influence 

 which may lend interest to a closer examination of the several interconver- 

 tible standards (Note 57). It is noteworthy, at the outset, that they are 

 all maxima ; &„ representing the greatest gravitating energy in the solar 

 system ; T,,, the cyclical time of maximum disturbance of the centripetal 

 tendencies of G^ ; W;^ = ^e- the greatest known velocity of wave-propaga- 

 tion ; //„, the greatest mass in the solar system ; /•jfj, the mass which exer- 

 cises the greatest local influence upon the physical phenomena which are 

 susceptible of the most minute observation ; v.^, the greatest thermal range 

 between the centripetal and centrifugal forms of the most widely dilfnsed 

 and most important body which is well known in the three states of solid, 

 liquid and gas ; L^ = G^, T^^, the sum of the accelerations of G^, during T^. 

 The law of conservation of areas, as well as the law of constancy, re- 

 quires that Gg should vary inversely as T,,, in all stages of solar nebular 

 condensation. The photic unit, «^, on account of the abundant evidence 

 of its universal activity, as well as on account of the laws of equal action 

 and reaction, and of the inverse variability of elasticity and density in ho- 

 mogeneous media, is presumably invariable. The thermal unit, v^, is 

 practically constant, but its dependence upon relations of mass which may 

 be subject to slight, though inappreciable, variations, subordinates it to the 

 photic unit. The electric unit, v^, being identical with the photic unit, the 

 question arises, which of the two should be regarded as primary, and which 

 as secondary. Do not the facts that light is universal, while the various 

 electrical units represent local relations, indicate the proper answer "? 



60. Heat and Electricity. 



The probability of arriving at the unity of force through the study of 

 fethereal oscillations, was indicated by me in 1864.f The special relations 

 of electricity to heat, which Edlund subsequently discussed with great 

 ability and fullness, are shown by the proportions. 



VT - E - \T -A'-R = T„7 



IJ.Z- 



R«v 



/^-3 



* Smithsonian Contributions, 232, p. 

 tProc. Am. Phil. Soc, ix, 356-60. 



