entire account of these facts and clears up at the same time the complex question of magnetic energy.
I shall give here only the principal results of this work which will, be published in full elsewhere.
(51) Molecular Currents. An electrified particle of charge e moving with a velocity v is equivalent to a current of moment ev. One easily deduces from this that a molecular current made up of an electron which describes in the periodic time t an orbit inclosed by the surface S is equivalent from the point of view of the magnetic field produced to a magnet of magnetic moment normal to the plane of the orbit.
There would be a corresponding current for each of the electrons present in a molecule, and the magnetic moment resulting from these would be zero or different from zero, according to the degree of symmetry of the molecular structure.
(52) Diamagnetism. If on a group of such molecules we superimpose an external magnetic field, all the molecular currents experience a modification independent of the manner in which the superposition is obtained, whether by the establishment of the field or by motion of the molecule in a preexisting field. The direction of this modification, due to the induction experienced by the molecular currents, corresponds always to diamagnetism, the increase of the magnetic moment being in the case of a circular orbit. H is the component of the magnetic field normal to the plane of the orbit and m the mass of the electron which describes the orbit.
(53) The Magnetic Energy. When the molecule is supposed immovable, the work necessary for the modification of the molecular currents is furnished by the electric field produced, according to the equations of Hertz, during the establishment of the magnetic field.
In the opposite case, where the modification is due to the motion of the molecules, the work is furnished to the molecular currents by the kinetic energy of the molecule or by the action of neighboring molecules. The diamagnetic modification produced at the moment of the establishment of the field continues in spite of the molecular agitation.
This modification is manifested in three distinct ways:
1. If the resulting motion of the molecules is zero, the substance is diamagnetic in the ordinary sense of the word, and the order of magnitude of the experimental diamagnetic constants is in good agreement with the hypothesis of molecular currents circulating in intra-molecular paths.
This conception leads to the law of independence established by Curie between the diamagnetic constants and the temperature or the physical state.
