128 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



lines indefinitely into space, with an angle so extremely small that at the 

 surface of the planet they just touch the opposite sides of a single corpuscle. 

 If we now bring to mind that the corpuscles not far distant from the surface 

 of the planet have all been reduced to their different sizes by actual contact, we 

 shall see that a column of corpuscles singly, one above another, will just 

 touch both these narrow angular lines. Whatever the distance of the 

 surface from the centre of a planet, at twice that distance from the centre 

 the diameter of the corpuscle will be exactly double of the diameter of the 

 corpuscle at the surface of the planet. The diameter of the corpuscle at 

 three times the distance, will be three times the diameter of the corpuscle at 

 the surface, and so on. At some distance therefore from the planet the 

 density of the tether surrounding the planet will be equal in density to the 

 sether surrounding the sun. At this point bodies will gravitate indifferently 

 either to the planet or the sun. Owing, however, to the motion of the 

 planet through the aether, there may be a deep zone or stratum of neutral 

 action. Inside this neutral space, however, the fether surrounding the 

 planet would travel with the planet through space. 



The form of this eethereal corpuscle is a matter of great importance. 

 Eevolvhig with an enormous velocity the tension of the shells of the tube 

 must be extremely great. The centrifugal force being so very great, will 

 therefore determine the form of the corpuscle, the matter of it being con- 

 sidered extremely elastic. It will expand more internally, both above and 

 below the plane of the circular axis, than it will externally. The inside of 

 the corpuscle will consequently be but slightly curved, while the outside 

 will be very considerably curved, almost spherically so. "What velocity of 

 rotation will determine the different sizes of the corpuscles cannot be settled. 

 The greater tension of the more swiftly revolving corpuscles, those farther 

 from the central body, increasing with the distance, would perhaps be taken 

 as an indication that the more swiftly revolving corpuscles are smoother. 

 They would therefore have a less frictional effect on any mass of matter. 

 At higher velocities, too, the friction of one on another becomes consider- 

 ably less than at lower velocities. It is not yet known what this ratio of 

 decrease is.* As these two points are of very great importance, and as the 

 velocity of rotation is also unknown on solely dynamical grounds, no calcu- 

 lations, at present, can be made on the effect of the aether on the same mass 

 of matter removed to different distances from a central body. We should 

 want to know, besides, the form, though not the size, of the pores or spaces 

 in the supposed mass. 



Though we cannot make calculations in detail, we can determine the 

 total amount of the effect produced by the corpuscles on a mass of matter 



* Encyclopffidia Britannica, ninth edition, article "Friction " (Galton's experiments). 



