that all the internal forces of matter are of electromagnetic origin, and that the energy is entirely divided between the two fields, electric and magnetic.
We shall see, however, farther on that it Is difficult to eliminate in this way all other forms of energy, all other forces, such as gravitation; and it would then be necessary to admit with Lorentz, in order that the correspondence between the two systems should actually subsist, that in the moved system the forces and masses of different origins are modified exactly as the electromagnetic forces and masses, an hypothesis too complicated and arbitrary in the actual state of the question.
But this does not seem to be a necessary consequence: it appears probable that these actions, foreign to electromagnetism, and necessary at the interior of the electron in order to give stability and in order to represent gravitation, and which are probably connected with one another, do not intervene in a sensible manner in the negative experiments referred to above, and that everything transpires as if the electromagnetic forces alone played a role, alone existed.
We shall see farther on that perhaps experiments of another kind than those referred to here, for example, some dynamic measurements bringing in a relative motion of the system moved, or some static experiments bringing in gravitation, would enable us to understand the absolute motion, the axes bound to the ether, instead of conceiving simply of their existence.
(13) Electromagnetic Inertia. The problem of the electromagnetic wake accompanying an electrified sphere or ellipsoid in the ether has been taken up since J. J. Thomson by Heaviside and Searle.
Max Abraham has shown their results to consist approximately of a numerical factor when, instead of supposing the body to be a conductor having a surface charge, we suppose its charge to have a uniform volume distribution.
Among the more important results contained in this solution of J. J. Thomson's problem, I will point out these: that in the case of a conducting sphere, the charge remains uniformly distributed on the surface whatever may be the velocity, and that in all cases the electric field at a distance tends to become more and more concentrated in the equatorial plane with respect to the direction of the velocity in proportion as this velocity approaches that of light.
Moreover the kinetic energy which it is necessary to expend at the moment of putting it in motion in order to create the electromagnetic wake ceases to be proportional to the square of the velocity, and increases indefinitely as the velocity approaches the velocity of lightwaves; the law of the increase of this kinetic energy with the velocity, the energy of self-induction of the current to which the charged body in motion is equal, may be easily deduced by Searle's solution.
