164 Dr. L. Silberstein on the recent Eclipse Results 



In other words, the discovery made at Brazil naturally 

 suggests the idea that the observed deflexion is due to the 

 condensation of the cether around the Sun*, and although one 

 has been an implacable enemy of any gether at all, for the 

 last fifteen years, one does not hesitate to point out this- 

 possibility — a last glimpse of hope, perhaps, for the banished 

 medium. 



Let us imagine for the moment that Einstein had never 

 published his debatable, though undoubtedly beautiful, new 

 theory — not even that of 1905. Then it is almost certain 

 that the Eclipse result would readily be acclaimed as an 

 evidence of the condensation of the aether near the Sun, as 

 required by the theory of Stokes-Planck, and would encourage 

 the physicists to work out in detail the optical and associated 

 consequences of such a condensation. But even though 

 Einstein's theory has been published, and is being made 

 popular in a most sensational way, we cannot help clinging 

 to the said idea. I just learn from 'The Observatory' for 

 August that Mr. Jonckheere suggested some months ago that 

 refractions may, inter alias, he caused by "a hypothetical 

 condensation of ether near the Sun." My point, however^ 

 is that such a source of refraction acquires a particular 

 interest if it is treated in connexion with the half- forgotten 

 theory of Stokes-Planck, when it ceases to be a detached 

 hypothesis. 



It is in this sense and in such an organic connexion that I 

 should like to draw attention to this aspect of the subject. 



Of course, the quantitative details of the suitable modifica- 

 tion of the optical, or the electromagnetic, properties of the 

 sether due to a radially symmetrical or any other condensation 

 have to be worked out carefully. It is not the purpose of 

 this Note to give a complete investigation of this kind, but 

 only some hints at its possibility. Such hints, together with 

 some remarks on the possible advantages of the advocated 

 theory, will occupy our attention in the following sections. 



4. If, merely to fix the ideas, the Boyle law is still adhered 

 to, the condensation s = pjp oo outside a radially symmetrical 

 gravitating mass is given, as in (1), by 



log S =^ (3) 



If we assume, for places near the Earth's surface, not more 

 and not less than what is just needed for the theory of 



* The logarithm of this condensation would amount, at the Sun's 

 surface, "by (1) a.nd (E), to the enormous figure <r= logs = 31100.. 

 Cf. the following footnote. 



