218 SEE— RESULTS OF RECENT [April 23, 



against the surfaces of the sun and planets gives rise to the observed 

 but heretofore perplexing accelerations of the equatorial regions of 

 these globes. 



15. The descent of matter upon the sun increases its mass and 

 gives rise to a small secular acceleration of the earth amounting to 

 about o".75 per century, which, as Mr. Cowell has shown, is also 

 indicated by the observations of the eclipses during the past 3,000 

 years. 



16. And just as the earth never rotated very rapidly, and has not 

 been appreciably retarded by the effects of tidal friction, so also 

 Venus likewise has escaped a corresponding retardation of axial 

 rotation, and still rotates in 23 hours 21 minutes, as has been held 

 by observers since the days of Cassini, 1667. Accordingly it follows 

 that the conditions of this planet are more like those of the earth 

 than any other body of our system. Mars rotates 41 minutes slower 

 than the earth, while Venus rotates 35 minutes faster ; and as the 

 former planet is about as much outside of the earth's orbit as the 

 latter is inside, there is seen to be a profound physical cause which 

 has operated to establish the period of 23 hours 21 minutes first 

 inferred from observations taken over two centuries ago. The 

 planet Venus, therefore, is habitable and probably inhabited by some 

 kind of intelligent beings. 



17. The moon was once an independent planet, and when revolv- 

 ing in the region of the asteroids, suffered numerous collisions with 

 satellites ; this is the cause of the immense, round, sunken craters 

 which have puzzled astronomers since the time of Galileo. The 

 traditional theory that they are volcanic is quite devoid of founda- 

 tion, and now definitely and finally disproved. 



18. The solar system extends much beyond Neptune, and sev- 

 eral of the unseen planets revolving near the outskirts of the 

 system may yet be discovered by observation. Neptune's orbit is 

 too round to be the last of the planets, because this roundness 

 indicates that the nebulous medium was quite dense at that distance, 

 and consequently that the limits of the system are much further out. 



19. It has long been known that the periodic comets are cap- 

 tured bodies which have suffered transformation of their orbits 



