The escape of stars from clusters 1. Calculation for a centrally concentrated model

. The Ambartsumian-Spitzer theory of the escape of stars from clusters is briefly reviewed, and a list of de- siderata is given. The rate of escape of stars is calculated for a steady-state cluster model whose density distribution is that of a polytrope of index 5. The resulting escape rate is about one-fourth that usually arrived at by consideration of average values without integration over a cluster model. A similar calculation for a polytrope of index 3 gives only a slightly faster escape rate, indicating that the result does not depend strongly on the model used.