THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[SIXTH SERIES.] 



NOVEMBER 1901. 



XLI1I. The Mechanism of Radiation. By J. H. Jeans, B.A. 7 

 Scholar of Trinity College, and Isaac Newton Student in 

 the University of Cambridge*. 



Introduction. 



§ 1. ri^HIS paper attempts to give a consistent interpretation 

 _L of a certain class of phenomena by referring them 

 all to the same hypothetical view as to the structure of matter. 

 As the result of some work on the kinetic theory of gases the 

 author was led, rightly or wrongly, to the conclusion that 

 the kinetic-theory phenomena of matter compel us to attribute 

 certain definite properties to the molecules of which matter is 

 composed. The range of view as to the structure of matter 

 could, it was found, be still further narrowed by the help of 

 certain optical phenomena. It was then of interest to examine 

 to what extent the view arrived at in this way was capable of 

 giving an account of the remaining phenomena, and how it 

 compared in this respect with other views as to the structure 

 of matter. 



To this end, several hypotheses as to the structure of 

 matter were examined by the present writer, and it seemed to 

 him that the one which is put forward in this paper was 

 much more capable of giving an account of the phenomena 

 in question than were any of the others tested by him. For 

 the sake of brevity, it has been thought advisable to remove 

 the scaffolding, by the help of which the theory of the 

 present paper has been formed, and simply to submit for 



* Communicated by the Physical Society : read June 14, 1901. 

 Phil. Mag. S. 6. Vol. 2. No. 11. Nov. 1901. 2 F 



