74 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



THE PHOTODYNAMIC PARABOLOID. 

 BY PLINY EARLE CHASE, LL.D. 



In the Philosophical Magazine for September 1876 I referred 

 to evidences of parabolic influence between a Centauri and Sun. 

 The entire series of paraboloidal abscissas may be found in the 

 Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society for June 17, 

 1881*. 



Newcomb gives estimates of the parallax of a Centauri, which 

 range between 0"-48 and l"-96. The mean of Henderson's obser- 

 vations in 1832-33, as deduced by himself, was 1"-16 + -11. 

 Peters, from the same observations, found 1"*14 + *11. Henderson 

 obtained 0"-913 from Maclear's observations in 1839-40 ; Peters, 

 0"-967± '064 from the same ; Maclear, 0"-919±-034 from decli- 

 nations in 1842,1844, and 1848; Moesta, 0"-880 + -068 from 

 declinations in 1860-64. There is therefore an uncertainty as to 

 the actual distance, of the same order of magnitude as planetary 

 eccentricities. If this fact should be thought to dimmish the 

 probability of a kinetic bond between the photodynamic paraboloid 

 and the fixed stars, it will be well to bear in mind the following 

 considerations : — 



1. If there is an all-pervading interstellar medium, which is both 

 material and elastic, all its persistent oscillations must be cyclically 

 harmonic in some shape or other. 



2. All such permanent rhythmical oscillations must be depen- 

 dent upon or associated with permanent masses and velocities. 



3. The mass and velocity from which the paraboloidal abscissas 

 were deduced are Sun's mass and the velocity of light. 



4. The coordinates indicate a solar motion in space which accords 

 closely with Herschel's estimated velocity t. 



5. The abscissas touch regions of incipient subsidence, which 

 explain the formation of the several planetary belts, in accordance 

 with Herschel's interpretation of the nebular hypothesis. 



6. The abscissas are manifoldly grouped in ways that are phyl- 

 lotactically and otherwise harmonically symmetrical, as might be 

 looked for in a medium like the supposed luminiferous aether. 



7. The last phyllotactic abscissa, A 3H , is a fourth proportional to 

 Sun's semidiameter, Laplace's limit of synchronous solar rotation 

 and revolution, and the modulus of light at Sun's surface. 



8. The paraboloid fixes Sun's position relatively to some other 

 important stars in the Milky Way. 



9. These are the most far-reaching indications of an unbroken 

 chain of kinetic influences that have ever been published. 



10. Being based upon the greatest mass and the greatest inter- 

 cosmical velocity of which we have any measurable knowledge, 

 the law of parsimony gives an a priori presumption that the chain 

 may extend to other masses of a like order of magnitude with Sun. 



11. The next abscissa to the solar phyllotactic series, A 39 , is in 



* Vol. xix. pp. 447, 448. 



t Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc, Nov. 4, 1881. 



