promulgated it, to which it might even by this time scarcely have attained if it had first been suggested as a probability indicated by the kinetic theory of gases, and been only afterward confirmed by observation. Now, however, guided by the views which Clausius and Williamson have given us of the continuous interchange of partners between the compound molecules constituting chemical compounds in the gaseous state, we see in Deville's theory of dissociation a point of contact of the most transcendent interest between the chemical and physical lines of scientific progress. To return to elasticity: if we could make out of matter devoid of elasticity a combined system of relatively moving parts which, in virtue of motion, has the essential characteristics of an elastic body, this would surely be, if not positively a step in the kinetic theory of matter, at least a fingerpost pointing a way which we may hope will lead to a kinetic theory of matter. Now this, as I have already shown,[1] we can do in several ways. In the case of the last of the communications referred to, of which only the title has hitherto been published, I showed that, from the mathematical investigation of a gyrostatically dominated combination contained in the passage of Thomson and Tait's "Natural Philosophy" referred to, it follows that any ideal system of material particles, acting on one another mutually through massless connecting springs, may be perfectly imitated in a model consisting of rigid links jointed together, and having rapidly rotating fly wheels pivoted on some or on all of the links. The imitation is not confined to cases of equilibrium. It holds also for vibration produced by disturbing the system infinitesimally from a position of stable equilibrium and leaving it to itself. Thus we may make a gyrostatic system such that it is in equilibrium under the influence of certain positive forces applied to different points of this system; all the forces being precisely the same as, and the points of application similarly situated to, those of the stable system with springs. Then, provided proper masses (that is to say, proper amounts and distributions of inertia) be attributed to the links, we may remove the external forces from each system, and the consequent vibration of the points of application of the forces will be identical. Or we may act upon the systems of material points and springs with any given forces for any given time, and leave it to itself, and do the same thing for the gyrostatic system; the consequent motion will be the same in the two cases. If in the one case the springs are made more and more stiff, and in the other case the angular velocities of the fly wheels are made greater and greater, the periods of the vibrational constituents of the motion will become shorter and shorter, and the amplitudes smaller and smaller, and the motions will approach more and more nearly those of two perfectly rigid groups of material points moving