Abstract
The statistics of disordered phenomena as exemplified by Einstein's theory of the Brownian motion is applied to the flow of fluids through porous media. It is shown that such a statistical treatment of the hydrodynamics in porous media automatically explains some well-known phenomena in a more satisfactory manner than do capillaric models. The statistical theory leads to a differential equation of motion of the fluid which is a modification of that of Darcy; notably a new macroscopic quantity is introduced which is termed ``dispersivity.'' This quantity is indicative of the sideways dispersion which a stream of fluid undergoes when it is passing through the porous medium. Under certain statistical assumptions outlined in the paper, the dispersivity becomes a constant of the porous medium. The new differential equation of motion of the fluid is discussed in detail and some indications about applications are given.
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