256 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



and we must also suppose that'the electro-magnetic forces of the 

 ring would, at one time, be less than those in the centre ; hence 

 we have a flow of electro-magnetic forces — one form of which is 

 light radiation — from the centre of the ring, and directly the 

 electro-magnetic content of this ring approaches an equilibrium 

 with the electro-magnetic force of the centre, repulsion is the 

 result, i.e. the distance must be adjusted to meet the require- 

 ments between the respective quantities of the two forces. It 

 is this rhythmical action or equilibrium that probably accounts 

 for the repulsion of each subsequent ring, and ultimately for 

 the relative distances specified in Bode's Law : the regular 

 order of which can be due to nothing but the result of forces in 

 rhythmical disequilibrium and equihbrium : the regular increase 

 of distance of each subsequent planet being dependent on the 

 diminution of gravitational forces due in part to the increased 

 distance, together .with the repulsion, not so much altered by 

 distance, and having therefore an increasing effect in each 

 successive ring. 



Here we have a series of cycles with a common central focus, 

 and as a result of this action tending to equilibrium, and depen- 

 dent upon it, we have a supercycle with the secondary focus in 

 the centre of the primary. This supercycle is the rotation of 

 the planets upon their own axes ; the cycle of their satelhtes 

 originating in, and being part of, this rotational movement. 

 How this arises does not concern us here, except that it is 

 sufficient to realise that this superadded cycle is a rhythmical 

 cycle analogous in origin to an overtone. The fact that these 

 are separate schemes of rotation, though indirectly dependent 

 upon the main cycle, is shown in the discrepancies that have 

 developed in the order of motion : one of which is the Martian 

 satelhte Phobos rotating in a lesser time than its primary — a 

 condition which can only be possible if the dissipation of energy 

 were greater in the primary than in the satellite, probably 

 conditioned by a more retaining atmospheric envelope in the 

 latter. Another aberration from the general arrangement in 

 motion in the System is in the movement perpendicular to the 

 elliptic, instead of from east to west, of the satellites of Uranus 

 and Neptune, and probably of the rotation of these two primaries 

 as well. The other discrepancy has resulted in the saturnian 

 satelhte, and two jovian ones, in going even farther than this 

 and rotating in a different direction, aberrations that meet the 

 analogy of overtone action ; for they are, in every way, forms of 

 motion originally caused by the same forces, but which com- 

 plicated themselves independently from the original forces as 

 the result of interference. 



In the Systems, as everywhere else, this complication of Forces 

 is the order. A retrogression or simplification has a doubtful 



