Abstract
An expression for the total cross section of electron-molecule scattering is derived in the modified effective-range theory. An excellent fit with the low-energy data in H2 of a recent time-of-flight experiment is found. In addition, the results are shown to be consistent with the diffusion cross section deduced from electron swarm data, pointing to a value of 1.27 a0 for the scattering length and a value of 5.4 a03 for the isotropic polarisability of H2. Finally a prediction is made for the total cross section in N2 at low energies.