

THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[SIXTH SERIES.] 



JANUARY 1910. 



I. The Fundamental Constant of Atomic Vibration and 

 the Nature of Dielectric Capacity. By William 

 Sutherland *. 



FROM the many beautiful theoretical discussions of the 

 Zeeman effect it appears that for some purposes the 

 vibrator of atomic radiation can be schematically simplified 

 to a negative electron whose motion is simple harmonic about 

 a central position of equilibrium. The theories have been 

 summarized up to 1900 by Lorentz (Congr. Internal, dePhys. 

 Paris, 1900), and since then the more complicated cases of 

 the effect have been discussed by W. Voigt (Ann. der Phys. 

 xxiv. 1907, p. 193). It now appears that the orbit of a 

 single electron moving under a force towards a centre and 

 proportional to radius vector gives the generalized essence 

 of the effect of a magnetic field on the lines of spectra, but 

 that there are also complicated conditions yet to be un- 

 ravelled. Probably these are of a kinematical nature to be 

 added to the several instances of kinematical conditions given 

 in " The Cause of the Structure of Spectra " (Phil. Mag. [6] 

 ii. 1901, p. 245). But the nature of the field of force 

 causing the harmonic motion has not yet been investigated 

 in relation to existing knowledge of molecular fields of force. 

 My papers on molecular attraction have led to the general 

 conception of the atom as an electrized sphere analogous to 

 the Earth as a magnetized sphere. In the electron theory of 



* Communicated by the Author. 

 Phil. Mag. S. 6. Vol. 19. No. 109. Jan. 1910. B 



