Wakelin. — On the Cause of Gravitation. 129 



at various distances from a centre, if we make one or two reasonable 

 assumptions. The law of gravitation would declare that the force of gravity 

 on the same mass of matter, at increasing distances from a central body, 

 would vary inversely as the square of the distance, and the assumptions are 

 that the pores or spaces of the mass of matter shall be as large as the 

 largest corpuscle in the region of the aether in which the mass is placed, and 

 that the pores or spaces shall be of the same volume as the corpuscle, 

 or a volume which is an exact multiple of that volume. The gather will 

 thus pass through the mass of matter. As the mass of matter comes from, 

 say, a great distance to the surface of the central body, the number of 

 corpuscles passing through it will be inversely as the cube of the distance. 

 The corpuscles, however, being only able to touch the surfaces of the pores 

 or spaces of the body, the number of points of contact can only increase inversely 

 as the square of the distance. As this is the law of gravity, it would show 

 that the frictional effect of each single corpuscle, at any distance, is always 

 the same, no matter what its size and velocity of rotation may be. 



As every planet is surrounded by its own sether, the aether surrounding 

 the sun cannot act directly on the mass of the planet. Let us take the case 

 of the moon producing a tidal wave. We may consider the action of the 

 moon to diminish the force of gravity of the earth at that place which is 

 under the moon. The waters of the ocean in this zone, relieved to some 

 extent of the force of gravity, will rise into a wave, as the water in a pump 

 rises when relieved from the pressure of the atmosphere. If we increase the 

 pressure between the corpuscles of the cether, ive inc7'ease the frictional effect ; and 

 if we reduce the pressure, the force of gravity will be diminished. The 

 action of the moon may be taken therefore as reducing the pressure among 

 the corpuscles in the aether between the moon and the earth. In the same 

 way the centrifugal action of the 'planet is such that it diminishes the pres- 

 sure among the corpuscles in the aether between it and the sun, and the planet 

 must, for the same reason, increase the pressure in the aether on the side 

 opposite to the sun. On account of this difference of pressure the planet 

 will be constantly deflected from the straight course it' would otherwise take. 

 Owing to the rapid motion of the planet through space, the force of gravity 

 would probably be greatest on the outer forward quarter of its surface — that 

 is, the force of gravity would be greatest between midnight and sunrise. 

 We might think, and perhaps it may be the case, that the additional pres- 

 sure upon this quarter of the planet causes it to revolve. 



Note. — One of the reasons why it would be most important to consider 

 the corpuscle extremely elastic, or, at any rate, capable of extreme tension, 

 is that the force of explosives, as of gunpowder, may be due to this tension. 

 Imagine a particle of matter to be of the form of a cone, and let a corpuscle 



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