On the Motion produced in an Infinite Elastic Solid by the Motion through the Space occupied by it of a body acting on it only by Attraction or Repulsion

Abstract

The title of the present communication describes a pure problem of abstract mathematical dynamics, without indication of any idea of a physical application. For a merely mathematical journal it might be suitable, because the dynamical subject is certainly interesting both in itself and in its relation to waves and vibrations. My reason for occupying myself with it, and for offering it to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, is that it suggests a conceivable explanation of the greatest difficulty hitherto presented by the undulatory theory of light; the motion of ponderable bodies through infinite space occupied by an elastic solid.