The London, Edinburgh and Dublin philosophical magazine and journal of science . opkinss result of1 for the difference between the precession of a homogeneousspheroid with the Earths ellipticity and the precession actu-ally observed, we may affirm that this difference is probablynot more than 4 or 5. With the best values for the numerical elements the dif-ference is, however, too well ascertained to be overlooked, andit leads to the conclusion that the Earth cannot consist of anentirely solid mass composed of equielliptic strata, and thatit is therefore partly composed of a solid shell bounded
The London, Edinburgh and Dublin philosophical magazine and journal of science . opkinss result of1 for the difference between the precession of a homogeneousspheroid with the Earths ellipticity and the precession actu-ally observed, we may affirm that this difference is probablynot more than 4 or 5. With the best values for the numerical elements the dif-ference is, however, too well ascertained to be overlooked, andit leads to the conclusion that the Earth cannot consist of anentirely solid mass composed of equielliptic strata, and thatit is therefore partly composed of a solid shell bounded bysurfaces such as I have elsewhere indicated, with an interiormass of viscid liquid, such as is seen flowing from the volcanicopenings of the shell, arranged in strata conforming to thelaws of hydrostatics, or, in other words, with strata of equaldensity decreasing in ellipticity towards the Earths centre. Note.—The section shown in the engraving at p. 245 ofthe paper in the Number for September should be placedthus, with the longer axis parallel to the lines of the Erratum in same 16 from top of p. 247, far — \p(x2-\-y2)dxdydz read -yif+y^dxdydz. Z2 [ 332 ] XLI. On the Self-induction of Wires,—Part Oliver Heavislde*. THE subject of the decomposition of an arbitrary functioninto the sum of functions of special types has manyfascinations. No student of mathematical physics, if he possessany soul at all, can fail to recognize the poetry that pervadesthis branch of mathematics. The great work of Fourier isfull of it, although there only the mere fringe of the subjectis reached. For that very reason, and because the solutionscan be fully realized, the poetry is more plainly evident thanin cases of greater complexity. Another remarkable thing tobe observed is the way the principle of conservation of energyand its transfer, or the equation of activity, governs the wholesubject, in dynamical applications, as regards the possibilityof effecting certain
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