NOTES TO TABLE XIX
CONSISTENCY OF RESULTS
The preceding tabulation summarizes the present state of the observational material bearing on the positions of the maxima of absorption lines. The comparison with theory is an important and difficult problem. The theoretical formulae contain as variables the temperature and the pressure; and thefractional concentration,,is very sensitive to changes in both these variables. It would therefore be possible to satisfy almost any observations by varying the two quantities jointly; but this procedure would furnish no useful test of the theory. The test made in the present chapter will involve the calculation of the temperature scale, with the partial electron pressure,,assumed constant.