558 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



similar universes, by coalescing, to become one, which, when 

 contracted to the size of either of its components, may retain 

 no more matter than one of the original universes. 



105. We have in these phenomena a complex series of 

 agencies tending to overcome the dissipation of energy and 

 the aggregation of matter. Impact developes heat, separates 

 bodies, and diffuses gas. Eadiation falls on the matter of 

 space and heats it : this energy is taken up by the hydrogen 

 to increase its velocity. As the hydrogen loses this new 

 velocity it is carried to positions of higher potential. It will 

 tend to linger in the empty parts of space, and it then becomes 

 a trap for wandering bodies. These wandering bodies are 

 separated from systems by the mutual interaction of three 

 bodies. 



106. Thus, in opposition to the theory of the dissipation of 

 energy, there is seen to be the possibility of an immortal 

 cosmos, in which we have neither evidence of a beginning nor 

 promise of an end. 



Art. LXIV. — On an Oversight in CroU's Mode of lengthen- 

 ing the Age of the Sun's Heat. 



By Professor Bickerton. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 3rd October, 



1894.] 



Dr. Croll has suggested that the age of the sun's heat may 

 be indefinitely lengthened if we assume the collision of two 

 bodies with a high velocity. He says that if two bodies, each 

 with a velocity of 478 miles a second, were to come into colli- 

 sion they would develope heat enough to last fifty million 

 years. Doubtless his figures are correct ; but the explanation 

 is not sufficient. Such an impact would result in a nebula of 

 the character I have described as producing a temporary star. 

 When the two bodies collide the molecular heat-motion would 

 be approximately equal to the velocity of the masses, and, dis- 

 regarding "selective escape," each particle would move so 

 fast that on its coming to the surface every one would leave 

 on a journey never to return ; and, in fact, a calculation shows 

 that they would have a final velocity in space of over 300 

 miles a second. So that this method of accounting for the 

 sun's heat contains a fallacy. In addition to this it has two 

 essential elements of improbability— namely, the high initial 

 velocity, and the improbability of complete impact. 



