THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, 



[FIFTH SERIES.] 



SEPTEMBER 1900. 



XXIV. Considerations regarding the Theory of Electrons. 

 By Prof. W. McF. Orr, Royal College of Science, Dublin*. 



1. \T7~HILE the theory of electrons developed within the 

 T T last few years by Larmor goes far to elucidate the 

 nature of electricity, to place the electromagnetic theory of 

 light on a dynamical basis, to extend the region in which 

 electric and optical phenomena may be considered as mani- 

 festations of the energy of one and the same medium into 

 the domain of electrostatics, and to resolve difficulties in the 

 explanation of the observed influences of matter on aether 

 on the electric and magnetic as well as the optical side, the 

 acceptance of one of its postulates as to the nature of 

 electrons is not free from difficulty. 



2. An electron or point-charge of strength e is defined f as 

 a freely mobile singular point in the specification of the 

 se the real (rotational) strain such that very near it the strain 



assumes the form -;— ( -7- , -r-, -7- J -. The nature of the 

 &Tr\dx dy dz J r 



nucleus is not precisely specified ; but it appears in keeping 

 with the theory, and indeed suggested by its first develop- 

 ment, to suppose that it may possibly be an exceedingly 

 minute spherical portion of the aether devoid of rotational 

 elasticity. If any number of such inelastic portions of any 

 size and form exist, and be supposed fixed, the equations of 



* Communicated by the Author. 



f Larmor, < ^Ether and Matter,' p. 86, Camb. Univ. Press, 1900. 



Phil. Mag. S. 5. Vol. 50. No. 304. Sept. 1900. U 



2-L^j 



