COSMOGONIC IIVI'OTIIESKS. 229 



in every atom. The end of the universe, or at least one sub- 

 period of it, is reached when every atom has cUsintegrated into 

 its component parts, be they electrons or the elusive nebulium 

 of which nebulae are mainly composed. The older cosmogonists 

 started with nebulium, which in some way could condense into 

 atoms and end with vast cold stars consisting of heterogenous 

 collections of atoms containing enormous stores of unavailable 

 energy. The present hypothesis reverses the process. We know 

 there are meteorites — numbers flash through our atmosphere and 

 are seen on every clear, dark night ; a few reach the surface of 

 the earth. Examination and analysis of the meteors which have 

 been foimd. show that in the main these bodies contahi all the 

 elements found upon the earth, and that they are compact bodies 

 formed under considerable pressure. How they came into being 

 is quite unknown ; to us they must represent an earlier stage or 

 sub-period of the universe akin to the egg or chrysalis stage in 

 the butterfly's period of existence. The earth is increasing its 

 mass by these falls of meteorites, but the increase, although con- 

 stantly in action, is very slow. But it is improbable that the 

 planets of the solar system were formed by this process; it is 

 possible that the planets grow by accretion, but their formation 

 was due to explosions of the central mass. As long as matter 

 was considered to be inert, there was no limit to the quantity of 

 it which could be assembled in one mass and held together by the 

 power of the mutual gravitation of its parts. But it is obvious 

 on further thought that a time will come when the gravitational 

 pressure of a mass will break into the atomic structure of its 

 matter and cause explosions. It is by such explosions that 

 planets are throw: i off. We can imagine, that in the solar sys- 

 tem one great explosion threw off all the planets and their 

 satellites, and that some of the satellites are due to sub-explosions 

 at the same epocl;. and some due to capture of remnants. In 

 this, the solar-typi of explosion, but one 730th part of the solar 

 mass was thrown off, but we may expect all types of explosions 

 — thus the original mass might explode into two nearlv equal 

 parts, examples of which we see in many double-star systems, or 

 the explosion might be so shattering that the original mass is 

 almost uniformly broken into thousands of fragments forming 

 a star-cluster like to Centaurus of f Toucan. Or the mass of a 

 system may so nearly balance the explosive force that explosions 

 are muffled and intermittent ; these would give rise to stellar- 

 variability or in the case of a body like the Sun. act as one of 

 the causes of sunspots. It has been shown that some of the 

 transformations of radium are rhythmic, a fact which suggests 

 that the sunspot period may he due to atomic disintegration. 



Here we may remark, that it is not impossible that explosive 

 action on the Earth, as shown in volcanic action, is due to the 

 liberation of atomic energy. Eormerly it was ascribed to the 

 percolation of water into hot strata, ibut the recent researches 

 of A. Brun have proved that the ejecta of volcanoes are free from 

 either steam or water. A time comes when the central mas'> 



