THE LIGHT OF THE STARS 3°5 



F cc r 3 X v*. 

 The ethereal viscosity being excessively small, either very high veloc- 

 ities, or very long durations are required to produce appreciable ether 

 drift. As Lagrange has demonstrated, there can be no surface of dis- 

 continuity in a perfect fluid, because such a surface implies a con- 

 tinuous generation of rotation in portions of a fluid of constant den- 

 sity. Conversely, if any discontinuity can be imposed upon the ether, 

 it must be a viscous fluid. Any structures formed from a viscous fluid 

 must eventually decay. The duration of the material phase may be 

 enormous, but its ultimate transition is inevitable. The point I wish 

 to make is that there is evidence of an absorption of light by the ether, 

 and that there is also evidence of atomic disintegration. The two 

 processes interlock into necessary and concomitant parts of a consistent 

 whole. What I bave tried to demonstrate is the existence of a phe- 

 nomenon and its approximate law, without attempting a refinement 

 which would be unwarranted at the present stage of the investigation. 



Conclusion 



In brief, we may conclude that space contains myriads of galaxies 

 which would make the midnight sky one blaze of light, were it not for 

 the absorption of light by the ether of space. This absorption can not 

 be a selective scattering by gaseous molecules, because this would de- 

 plete the radiation of short wave-length unduly, and would redden the 

 light of the more distant nebulas, whereas no such change of color with 

 distance is found. Neither can the absorption be due to the general 

 absorption of radiation of every wave-length by coarser meteoritic dust, 

 since the meteoritic material would in time become heated to incan- 

 descence, as Arrhenius has noted, and in this case also the entire heav- 

 ens must glow. There remains, then, the supposition that the ether 

 itself absorbs the radiation from the stars, and that in this fixation of 

 energy, matter originates. 14 



There is, I apprehend, a close analogy between the sequences of 

 cosmogony and of geogeny. Upon the earth there are wide expanses 

 of oceanic depths which have apparently remained such from the be- 

 ginning of denudation. That remarkable property of saline solutions 

 whereby suspended solid particles are quickly precipitated, causes the 

 marginal deposition of those sediments brought to the sea by the rivers. 

 The oceanic depths are the counterparts of the intergalactic spaces. In 

 both, change progresses very slowly. 



But around the borders of the continents, sediments accumulate in 

 geosynclines which are self perpetuating. The increasing weight of 

 the deposit deepens the depression, until after the accumulation has 



14 As suggested in my paper, "A Cosmic Cycle," Am. Jour. Sci., Ser. 4, Vol. 

 13, p. 189, March, 1902. 



VOL. LXXXII.— 21. 



