may be a little more complicated. The motion of Mercury's perihelion would therefore be 7´´ in the theory of Lorentz and 5´´.6 in that of Abraham.
The effect moreover is proportional to n3a2, where n is the star's mean motion and a the radius of its orbit. For the planets, in virtue of Kepler's law, the effect varies then inversely as √a5; it is therefore insensible, save for Mercury.
It is likewise insensible for the moon though n is great, because a is extremely small; in sum, it is five times less for Venus, and six hundred times less for the moon than for Mercury. We may add that as to Venus and the earth, the motion of the perihelion (for the same angular velocity of this motion) would be much more difficult to discern by astronomic observations, because the excentricity of their orbits is much less than for Mercury.
To sum up, the only sensible effect upon astronomic observations would be a motion of Mercury's perihelion, in the same sense as that which has been observed without being explained, but notably slighter.
That can not be regarded as an argument in favor of the new dynamics, since it will always be necessary to seek another explanation for the greater part of Mercury's anomaly; but still less can it be regarded as an argument against it.
III
The Theory of Lesage
It is interesting to compare these considerations with a theory long since proposed to explain universal gravitation.
Suppose that, in the interplanetary spaces, circulate in every direction, with high velocities, very tenuous corpuscles. A body isolated in space will not be affected, apparently, by the impacts of these corpuscles, since these impacts are equally distributed in all directions. But if two bodies A and B