Page:Elektrische und Optische Erscheinungen (Lorentz) 005.jpg

 To come to the basic equations for the phenomena of electricity in moving bodies, I joined an opinion that has been represented in recent years by several physicists; I have indeed assumed that small electrically charged molecules exist in all bodies, and that all electric processes are based on the location and motion of these "ions". As regards the electrolytes, this view is widely recognized as the only possible one, and,  ,  ,  and  have defended the view, that also as regards the electricity conduction in gases, we are dealing with a convection by ions. It seems to me, that nothing prevents us to believe that the molecules of ponderable dielectric bodies contain such particles, which are connected to certain equilibrium positions and are moved only by external electric forces thereof; just herein the "dielectric polarization" of such bodies would consist.

The periodically changing polarization, which forms a light ray according to 's theory, become vibrations of the ions in this conception. It is well known that many researchers, who stood on the basis of the older theory of light, considered the resonance of ponderable matter as the cause of color dispersion, and this explanation can in the main also included into the electro-magnetic theory of light, for which it is only necessary to ascribe to the ions a certain mass. This I have shown in a previous paper, in which I admittedly have derived the equations of motion from actions at a distance, and not, what I now consider to be much easier, from 's expressions.