﻿Electron Tlieory of Metallic Conduction. 173 



cannot represent any real physical example of a radiating 

 body of any known type. Physically this implies that the 

 general restrictions limiting in actual practice the validity 

 of the physical hypotheses on which the theory is based, 

 must also limit the applicability of the formula obtained from 

 the theory, an obvious remark which it appears, however, 

 necessary to insist upon, because it is the expressed opinion 

 of certain mathematical physicists that, for example, the 

 Ray leigh- Jeans formula obtained by Lorentz on certain 

 obviously restricted assumptions is of a general validity in 

 no way limited by the restrictions naturally imposed on 

 these assumptions. The results obtained by Thomson are 

 almost conclusive evidence that this contention is in no wise 

 justifiable, and the results of the above form of Lorentz's 

 theory are also against such an opinion. 



I hope to discuss, in further detail, in a future communi- 

 cation some of the points raised in the latter part of this 

 paper and not fully disposed of. 



The University, Sheffield, 

 1914. 



Note added Dec. 2nd, 1914. — Since the above paper was 

 sent to press I have discovered that Prof. H. A. Wilson has 

 anticipated the main point of the above analysis although 

 he apparently failed to appreciate its bearing (Phil. Mag. 

 Nov. 1910). He. however, unfortunately includes it as a 

 small part of a paper, all the other results of which are 

 either incomplete or inaccurate, and I think it deserves 

 better and more elaborate treatment. Some advantage may 

 therefore be gained by amplifying the point as above. 



XVIII. On the Electron Theory of Metallic Conduction. — I. 

 By a. H. Livens *. 



Introduction. 



ONE of the greatest successes achieved by the so-called 

 theory of electrons has been in its application to the 

 explanation of the details of the conduction of electricity in 

 metals. Encouraged by the wonderful success of the earlier 

 and more tentative applications of the theory by Drude and 

 Riecke, numerous writers have endeavoured by the intro- 

 duction of statistical methods to develop the theory in still 

 greater detail. Many of the more fundamental results in 



* Communicated hv the Author. 



