  Boltzmann’s begins the paper by stating that his goal is to elucidate the relationship between the Second Law and probability calculus. He notes he has repeatedly emphasized that the Second Law is related to probability calculus. In particular he points out that the 1872 paper confirmed this relationship by showing that a certain quantity [i.e. \(H\)] can only decrease, and must therefore obtain its minimum value in the state of thermal equilibrium. Yet, this connection of the Second Law with probability theory became even more apparent in his previous paper (1877a). Boltzmann states that he will now solve the problem mentioned in that paper, of calculating the probabilities of various distributions of state by determining the ratio of their numbers.