The Nature of the Soft Component of the Cosmic Radiation

An inquiry is made into the nature of the corpuscular entities which possess the properties necessary to explain the soft component of the cosmic radiation on the basis of the recent theory of W. F. G. Swann. The conclusion is reached that the most likely entities are protons which lose energy according to the relation $-\frac{\mathrm{dE}}{\mathrm{dx}}=\lambda E+\alpha$, where $\alpha$ represents the energy lost per unit path by ionization, and $\lambda E$ the energy which goes into the production of secondaries in the amount that is actually observed in the form of showers.