556 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



expand. Croll's theory to account for an increase in the age 

 of the sun's heat is therefore untenable. 



The Cosmos possibly Immortal. 



89. If our universe be proved, from its configuration and 

 character, to have been formed of two previously-existing 

 universes, as appears probable from 59 et scqq., then the 

 entire cosmos may be made up of an infinity of universes. 



90. Meteoric swarms prove space to be dusty with wander- 

 ing dark bodies, and "molecular selective escape" proves it 

 also to be spread with countless myriads of molecules of light 

 gas. It is probably due to the dust of space that we see no 

 distant universes other than the Magellanic Clouds. 



91. If this be tbe case, radiation must all be caught by the 

 dust of space, and, unless some agency be found to take this 

 heat away, the dust must be gradually increasing in tempera- 

 ture. 



92. Bodies not in closed orbits when moving at high velo- 

 cities take but a short time to pass over great distances ; they 

 take longer and longer periods as the velocity is reduced. 

 Hence hydrogen gas, when it has travelled into positions com- 

 paratively free from the influence of matter, will be generally 

 moving slowly. But slowly-moving gas is cold : hence hydro- 

 gen gas may be at a lower temperature than any other matter 

 in space. 



93. Whenever by their mutual motions hydrogen strikes 

 cosmic dust, it will acquire the temperature of the latter : that 



•is, it will increase its molecular velocity. It will thus have a 

 new start of motion. 



94. It is evident that unless it strikes something the mole- 

 cule can only lose this motion by radiation and by doing work. 

 When it has done work, it will be further from matter, or in a 

 position of higher potential, and Crookes's experiments prove 

 that molecules do not radiate in free path except immediately 

 after encounters. 



95. Moving matter not in orbits will tend to move slowest 

 .where there is least matter — that is, where gravitation potential 



is highest — because in these places it has done most work 

 against gravitation. Where bodies moving indiscriminately 

 move slowest they obviously tend to aggregate : in other words 

 the hydrogen of space tends to accumulate in the sparsest por- 

 tions of space. 



96. Thus radiant energy falls upon the dust of space and 

 heats it. This heat gives motion to hydrogen, and the hydro- 

 gen then tends to use its new energy to pass to positions of 

 high potential, thus converting low-temperature heat — that is, 

 dissipated energy — into potential energy of gravitation — that 

 is, into the highest form of available energy. 



