Wakelin. — On the Cause of Gravitation. 127 



sidered as spherical and nearly smooth, and as impermeable to the cor- 

 puscles. Some, one way, would be more stable than another. Whatever 

 this way might be, all the corpuscles around the body would revolve in the 

 same direction. It becomes, then, a question whether the corpuscles will 

 so adjust themselves to the body that the direction of rotation of their out- 

 sides shall be towards the body or from it. There is a slight pressure sup- 

 posed to be exerted by the corpuscles on one another. For convenience, 

 one sethereal corpuscle vastly enlarged may be considered as acting on a 

 smooth table — -firstly, with the insides revolving downward, and, of course, the 

 outsides revolving upward. Let it be tilted considerably on one side. It 

 will at once turn right over, owing to the reaction from striking the table 

 downwards. While thus revolving with its outside downwards let the cor- 

 puscle be again tilted considerably. The motion of the outside being down 

 the reaction will be such as to cause the corpuscle to resist being tilted over. 

 That position, then, of the corpuscle when it revolves loith its outsides downwards 

 is the position of greater stability. All masses acted on by these corpuscles 

 will thus be impelled towards the central body. 



The smi being vastly the predominant body in the solar system, the 

 sether will, to a proportionate extent, adjust itself to it. The motion of 

 rotation of the asthereal corpuscles will be directed to the sun, unless more 

 strongly affected by other bodies. The sun thus has a directive action on the 

 medium, causing all bodies to gravitate toivards itself. We have now to enquire 

 in what way minor bodies, as the planets, affect the sether. They do, of 

 course, affect it in the same way as the sun (considered only as a solid body) 

 affects it. To what distance from the surface of any planet does the planet 

 affect the ^ther more powerfully than the sun does ? When we know this 

 we shall know when bodies will gravitate towards the planet instead of 

 towards the sun. 



The corpuscles in contact with any mass of matter will have their 

 velocity of rotation constantly diminished by such contact. The tension 

 and elasticity of the corpuscles being great, and the velocity being 

 diminished, the corpuscle will contract. The corpuscles outside the first 

 series being in contact with slower-revolving inner corpuscles will have 

 their velocity of rotation diminished, and will likewise contract in size. 

 And so on with the sether immediately surrounding the planet or any other 

 body. At the surface of any body, as the sun, a planet, or satellite, the size 

 of the corpuscles will be enormously reduced — that is, the sether (every 

 corpuscle being of equal mass) will increase in density as we near the 

 surface of those bodies. And the size of the sethereal corpuscles will 

 increase the farther we go from such bodies. 



Let us take any body, as a planet, and from its central point draw two 



