ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 379 



satellites. Saturn seems to be the only planet -which is in this cate- 

 gory ; and the only one, therefore, which could sustain a ring. Our 

 sun, also, does not seein to have satellites properly disposed for sup- 

 porting a ring, and the only part of the solar system where such a 

 phenomenon might have been expected, is just within the powerful 

 mass of Jupiter. But if there had ever been a ring at this part of the 

 system, it must have been subject to such extraordinary perturbations 

 that it would, in the course of time, have been made to strike against 

 its next interior planet, Mars, and in this way have been broken up 

 into the asteroids with their eccentric orbits. 



5. But suppose that, from any cause whatever, the sun had, at one 

 period, been surrounded by a ring of a large radius ; and, in order to 

 escape the planetary influence, we may suppose the plane of the ring 

 to have had a large inclination to the ecliptic. The result would have 

 been, that the centre of gravity of the ring would have soon begun to 

 move in some direction or other, and would continue to move until its 

 inner edge was brought in collision with the sun. But during this 

 motion, and in consequence of the solar action, the matter of the ring 

 would have accumulated at the most remote part, so that if the sun 

 were a mere point, it would happen that, on the very instant of its 

 meeting the ring, the whole ring would have escaped from the point 

 of contact, and it would be a comet in its aphelion ! 



If, however, the ring were supposed to be a large, gaseous mass, of 

 a circular figure, the condensation which would occur at the point of 

 aphelion might lead to chemical action. Precipitation might ensue, 

 and the necessary consequence would seem to be a constantly acceler- 

 ated accumulation at this point, which would terminate in the produc- 

 tion of a planet. Under this modification, the nebular hypothesis may 

 possibly oe free from some of the objections with which it has justly 

 been assailed. But in approaching the forbidden limits of human 

 knowledge, it is becoming to tread with caution and circumspection. 

 Man's speculations should be subdued from all rashness in the imme- 

 diate presence of the Creator, and a wise philosophy should beware 

 lest it strengthen the arms of atheism by venturing too boldly into so 

 remote and obscure a field as that of the mode of creation which was 

 adopted by the Divine Geometer. 



Prof. Mitchel suggested whether there were not a possibility that 

 this alleged fluid ring, in its changes of configuration, might run into a 

 fluid sufficiently thin to give the possibility of the transmission of light 

 through it. If it really changes its form and becomes several rings, it 

 seemed that in the act of passing from one single ring to two, before 

 it divided, it must become so thin as to allow the light to penetrate 

 and come to us refracted. If this should prove to be the case, the Pro- 

 fessor considered it of the utmost importance, and every observer 

 should carefully observe the occupations. He considered it a very 

 strange and curious doctrine. 



Prof. Peirce replied that it was of course almost impossible to answer 

 the question of Prof. Mitchel. He supposed, however, that at the 

 moment of separation, a sinking takes place, producing a depression at 

 the point whe.ro the separation takes place, and that rapidly after it 



