540 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



following reasoning provides the only means of escape from 

 this dismal conclusion that has not heen refuted. 



If, as I consider Proctor has conclusively proved, our 

 universe is of definite and not chance form, it must have 

 had a definite and not chance mode of evolution ; and if, as I 

 have suggested elsewhere, its form is demonstrably similar to 

 that resulting from the partial collision of two previously-ex- 

 isting universes, we have a right to postulate the existence of 

 universes other than our own ; and late photographic observa- 

 tions suggest, at least, that we have such universes actually 

 within sight in the shape of the Magellanic Clouds. 



If light suffers extinction in travelling long distances, as 

 Struve's observations suggest to be the case, and as seems 

 reasonable considering the dusty condition of space, then the 

 number of unseen universes may be infinite. 



In disproving the theory of dissipation as applied to the 

 whole cosmos, we do not have to prove the immortality of the 

 cosmos, but only to demonstrate the possibility oflts immor- 

 tality. The idea that the process of cosmic evolution is finite 

 in time is so essentially repugnant to most minds that it is 

 only after the most diligent search for and the failure to show 

 the possibility of the contrary that the dissipation theory has 

 been accepted. Eankine, Clausius, and other great physicists 

 have attempted to remove it ; but their reasoning has been 

 shown to be faulty. It is easy also to show that Herbert 

 Spencer's attempt in his '-'First Principles " fails on grounds 

 of equivalent energy. 



If space is dusty, radiation may all be caught by matter, 

 thus raising its mean temperature, and so it is possible that 

 no radiation is wasted, but that it all falls upon the meteoric 

 and other matter of space. The idea that space is thus occu- 

 pied throughout with gaseous molecules and solid meteoric 

 and other dust is common to many hypotheses. Some sixteen 

 years ago I demonstrated, and Dr. Johnstone Stoney has 

 recently shown, that there is a tendency for light molecules, 

 such as hydrogen, to obtain velocities high enough to enable 

 them to escape from gravitating masses. I have shown this 

 to be the case particularly during impacts, when molecular 

 escape would probably be, on the average, very considerable. 

 Again, the coalescence of free heavy gaseous molecules 

 escaping from dissipating bodies, together with impacts be- 

 tween comparatively small bodies, tends to besprinkle space 

 with solid matter in the form of dust. The formation of such 

 free solid matter is discussed in my Synopsis under the head 

 of " The Formation of Star-clusters and Meteoric Swarms." 



"When moving bodies, molecular or otherwise, are not in 

 closed orbits they remain but a short time at high velocities. 

 The highly hyperbolic orbit of a comet in its journey round 



