Page:Scientific Memoirs, Vol. 1 (1837).djvu/463

Rh the latter be spherical, they are surrounded by an atmosphere the density of which decreases according to a function of the distance which contains an exponential factor. The differential equation which determines the density being linear, is satisfied by any sum of these functions answering to any number of molecules. Whence it follows that their atmospheres may overlay or penetrate each other without disturbing the equilibrium of the æther. Proceeding in the next place to the conditions of equilibrium of the molecules, I observed that, for a first approximation (which may be sufficient in almost all cases), the reciprocal action of two molecules and of their surrounding atmospheres is independent of the presence of the others, and possesses all the characteristics of molecular action. At first it is repulsive, and contains an exponential factor which is capable of making it decrease very rapidly: it vanishes soon after, and at this distance two molecules would be as much indisposed to approach more nearly as they would be to recede further from each other; so that they would remain in a state of steady equilibrium. At a greater distance the molecules would attract each other, and their attraction would increase with their distance up to a certain point, at which it would attain a maximum: beyond this point it would diminish, and at a sensible distance would decrease directly as the product of their mass, and inversely as the square of their distance.

This action, possessing all the properties with which we can presume that molecular action is endued, is the more remarkable as it has been deduced from those forces only whose existence was already admitted by philosophers, and whose law is characterized by such extraordinary simplicity. When tested in the explanation of the varied phænomena which are proper to it, it must lead, in case of failure, to the exclusion of those forces from amongst physical principles; or, in case of success, establish their reality; and thus mark in a striking manner the admirable œconomy of nature.

To apply the formulæ which we have found, for the purpose of representing molecular action, to the phænomena of the interior constitution of bodies, requires methods of calculation which are not yet developed, and which must become still more complicated when the arrangement of the molecules, their form and their density, are taken into consideration. I have thought it advisable, however, in consideration of tin; use to which it might be applied by able geometers, not to postpone the publication of this mode of viewing molecular action. It is a subject which appears to me entitled to the greatest attention, because the discovery of the laws of molecular action must lead mathematicians to establish molecular mechanism on a single principle, just as the discovery of the law of universal attraction led them to erect on a single basis the most splendid monument of human intellect, the mechanism of the heavens.