AEPINUS ATOMIZED. 



843 



and it jumps out of Â towards A (like a cork jumping out of a bottle). 

 It will shoot through A (A' and A being held fixed); and after several 

 oscillations to and fro, perhaps *) ten or twenty, if it lias onlj quasi 

 inertia due to condensation or raréfaction 2 ) produced by it in ether; or 

 perhaps many times more if it has intrinsic inertia of its own ; it will 

 settle, with decreasing range of excursions, sensibly to rest within 

 A, attracted somewhat fro m the centre by A'. If, lastly, A' and A be 

 drawn asunder to their original great distance, the electrion will not 

 regain its original position in A\ but will corne to the centre of A and 

 rest there. Here then we have another illustration of the tendency found 

 in § 9, of the smaller atom to take electrions from the larger. 



§ 14. In preventing the two atoms from rushing together by holding 

 them against the attractive force of the 'electrion, we shall have gained 

 more work during the approach than we afterwards spent on the sépa- 

 ration ; and we have now left the System deprived of the farther amount 

 of energy carried away by ethereal waves into space. 



§ 15. The System in its final state with the electrion at the centre of 

 the smaller atom has less potential energy in it than it had at the be- 

 ginning (when the electrion was at the centre of A'), by a différence 

 equal to the excess of the work winch we gained during the approach 

 above that which we spent on the final séparation of Â and A, plus the 

 amount carried away by the ethereal waves. Ail thèse items except the 

 last are easily calculated from the algebra of the footnote on § 13; and 

 thus we find how much is our loss of energy by the ethereal waves. 



§ 16. Yery mteresting statical problems are presented to us by con- 

 sidération of the equilibrium of two or more electrions within one atom, 

 whether a polyelectrionic atom with its saturating number, or an atom 

 of any electric strength with any number of electrions up to the grea- 

 test number that it can hold. To help to clear our ideas, first remark 

 that if the number of electrions is infinité, that is to say if we go back 

 to Aepinus' electric fluid, but assume it to permeate freely through an 



J ) „On the Production of Wave Motion in an Elastic Solid", Phil. Mag. 

 Oct. 1899, § 44. 



2 ) „On the Motion of Pondérable Matter through Space Occupied hy Ether", 

 Phil. Mag., Aug. 1900, §§ 15, 17. 



