  Weierstrass's theory is a standard qualitative tool for single degree of
freedom equations, used in classical mechanics and in many textbooks. In this
Brief Report we show how a simple generalization of this tool makes it possible
to identify some differential equations for which compact and even semicompact
traveling solitary waves exist. In the framework of continuum mechanics, these
differential equations correspond to bulk shear waves for a special class of
constitutive laws.
