464 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



(3) That owing to the form arid action of the ethereal corpuscule it 

 will adjust itself to the surface with which it is in contact. More 

 strictly, since the ether penetrates all bodies, the corpuscules will 

 adjust themselves according to the nature as well as to the form 

 of the surface. 



If the ether is composed of rotating corpuscules then, by contact with 

 the earth, their velocity of rotation will be gradually reduced, and accord- 

 ing to the theory explained in the former paper these corpuscules will com- 

 bine with the solid matter which they have penetrated. In this way the 

 earth would grow larger by the addition of matter which has been reduced 

 to an ordinary state, that is to matter as we commonly understand it. The 

 matter of the ether may be described as matter in an " extraordinary state." 

 Astronomers maintain that the earth is growing larger, however gradually, 

 and but very recently the view was put forward that this gradual increase 

 in the size of the earth was due to showers of meteoric stones. The total 

 quantity of meteoric matter, however, falling on the earth, was found by 

 calculation much too small to produce the increase in the size of the earth. 

 Professor Seeley, in a course of lectures on geology, delivered three or four 

 months ago at the Eoyal Institution, expressed his conviction that the earth 

 was being increased in size by some gradual process of addition. 



The corpuscules of the ether are so constituted and act in such a manner 

 as to adjust themselves to a flat surface, so that their outsides will revolve 

 in the direction of that surface. More strictly it should be said that the 

 ethereal corpuscules adjust themselves to what may be called a predom- 

 inating surface. By a predominating surface would be understood a sur- 

 face that has the greatest influence on the direction of rotation of the 

 corpuscules. The solid and immovable land would have a greater influence 

 than the mobile ocean, and dense solid matter than relatively lighter matter. 

 The plumb-line has been found to be deflected from the true or astronomical 

 vertical, in two ways, both probably owing to the same cause. The first is 

 well known. Mountains deflect the plumb-line from the true vertical. In 

 mountainous countries, as near the Alps and Caucasus, this deflection 

 amounts to as much as 29" of arc. The other case is this, the plumb-line 

 hangs perpendicular to the surface of still water always, but the direction 

 of the plumb-line is very frequently not in the direction of the centre of the 

 earth. As bearing on this point, though not clearly understood, the follow- 

 ing extraordinary facts should be quoted : — 



" At sixteen astronomical stations in the English survey the disturbance 

 of latitude due to the form of the ground has been computed, and the follow- 

 ing will give an idea of the results : — At six stations the deflection is under 

 2", at six others it is between 2" and 4", and at four others it exceeds 4". 



