Electrical Resistance of Bismuth. 191 



Other uses and qualifications of the method would doubtless 

 come to light, if experts would turn their attention to the sub- 

 ject. It may be hoped that Mr. Turner's example will be 

 followed by other practical astronomers. An unquestioning 

 acquiescence in the orthodox Method of Least Squares is the 

 less justifiable, in so far as the doctrine, in its form of rigid 

 exclusiveness, is not derivable from the fountain of authority, 

 Laplace. Laplace by no means degrades the " Method of 

 Situation " below the Method of Least Squares. He expressly 

 prefers the former in certain cases*. Orthodoxy should not 

 put tradition before inspiration. 



XXIII. An Experimental Study on the Influence of Magnetism 

 and Temperature on the Electrical Resistance of Bismuth 

 and its Alloys with Lead and Tin. By Edmond von Aubel, 

 of Liege, Member of the Physical Society of London] . 



Preliminaky Communication. 



Bibliography. 



1. H. Tomlinson. Proc. Roy. Soc. London, xxxiii. p. 276 (1882). 



2. Bighi. Atti delta H. Accademia dei Lincei [3], xix. p. 545 (1883- 



84) ; Journal de Physique [2], iii. p. 355 (1884). 



3. Hurion. Journal de Physique [2], iv. p. 171 (1885). 



4. Leduc. Journal de Physique '[21, iii. p. 362 (1884), and v. p. 116 



(1886). 



5. Von Ettingshausen and Nernst. Wien. Ber. xciv. Abth. ii. p. 560 



(1886). 



6. J. Fae. Lumiere electrique, xxiii. p. 169 (1887), and xxv. p. 630 (1887). 



7. Goldhammer. Annalen der Physik, 1887, no. 7, p. 360. 



8. Von Ettingshausen. Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissen- 



schaften zu Wien, Meeting of the 31st March, 1887. 



9. Elie. Journal de Physique, September 1887. 



MANY physicists have been at work upon the influence of 

 magnetism on the electrical conductivity of metals. 

 The metals which have already been studied are iron, nickel, 

 cobalt, antimony, tellurium, and especially bismuth. 



The above investigations have been carried on principally 

 with the view of discovering an explanation of Hall's phe- 

 nomenon. 



The present memoir is intended to fix the date of pub- 

 lication. Our researches were commenced last May ; since 

 then many works have appeared on the question which we 



* Theor. Analytique, Supplement 2, subjinem ; referring to the simple 

 case of a single unknown quantity. To generalize the principle there laid 

 down is the object of this paper. 



t Communicated by the Physical Society : read January 28, 1888. 



