CUMULATIVE EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION 



The question naturally arises whether this process of 

 atomic degradation is a one-way process, destined in the end 

 to reduce all matter to its simplest form. The most recent 

 discoveries of physicists seem to answer this question in the 

 negative. There is a well-defined belief among experts in 

 these matters that processes the reverse of those described 

 above, involving a synthesis of simpler forms of matter into 

 more complex, are going on out in the remotest interstellar 

 spaces. Professor Millikan has detected vibrations emanat- 

 ing from these outer spaces — vibrations whose frequency is 

 not even approached by any known earthly or solar phe- 

 nomena — that are interpreted as evidences of immensely 

 energetic synthetic processes involving the return of matter 

 from its state of ultimate disintegration to conditions of inte- 

 gration and complexity. These observations seem to indicate 

 that atomic evolution, like other phases of evolution, is 

 rhythmic and orderly. Such a rhythm would seem to have no 

 beginning and no ending. Perhaps our ideas of beginnings 

 and endings are due merely to the limited functioning of 

 our human brain mechanism. 



In the hands of the expert the spectroscope is seemingly 

 a magical instrument. By its help he can reach out and 

 measure the distances and the diameters of the remotest stars, 

 and even of the outer galaxies; he can use it as a long-range 

 thermometer with which he can read the temperatures of the 

 most distant suns; with it as a speedometer he can calculate 

 the velocity of any of the heavenly bodies; and by its aid he 

 can determine the chemical composition of the external parts 

 of the suns almost as accurately as if he had them in his 

 laboratory. 



Spectroscopic analysis indicates that there is an orderly 

 and systematic progression in the temperature and composi- 

 tion of the suns from the giants, or young suns, to the dwarfs, 



[361] 



