226 SEE— THE EXISTENCE OF PLANETS [April 23, 



lead to the detachment of distinct rings, and is not a continuous outflow of 

 gas from the equator more probable? (p. 19). 



So the matter stood until early in 1908, when the writer took 

 up study of the spiral nebulse and discovered that the roundness of 

 the orbits of the planets and satellites was due to the secular action 

 of a resisting medium, and not to detachment in orbits which were 

 originally nearly circular, as imagined by Laplace.* The novelty 

 of this view of the formation of the solar system is pointed out in 

 a review by a distinguished authority in Nature of July 29, 1909, 

 where we read : 



Dr. See contends that the planets and satellites of the solar system were 

 captured and their orbits made remarkably circular by a resisting medium. 

 In his view^, therefore, Laplace's nebular hypothesis is altogether wrong, 

 whereas the current view is that it is in the main right, though in need of 

 considerable modification and extension. . . . Capture is a possibility, but Dr. 

 See has done nothing to raise his theory beyond a mere conjecture, even 

 though he points out, in addition, that a resisting medium would diminish 

 the mean distance and the eccentricity of an elliptic orbit, and that in the 

 case of Jupiter's satellites the outer orbits are highly eccentric and the inner 

 orbits nearly circular. 



This review was written before the papers on the dynamical 

 theory of the capture of satellites,^ and the capture of the moon® 

 had appeared ; so that the claim that I have not explained how 

 capture takes place is no longer valid. On the contrary, this work 

 has now been published nearly a year, and the correctness of it 

 does not seem to be questioned in any quarter. 



We shall not in this paper dwell on the work done by the author 

 during the past two years, and embodied in Volume II. of the 

 " Researches on the Evolution of the Stellar Systems," which is 

 soon to appear, but shall merely remark that the Laplacian theory 

 now appears to be permanently. overthrown and the capture theory 

 established in its place. It is proved that the embryo planets were 

 formed in the outer parts of the solar nebula, and have been cap- 

 tured and attached to the sun after nearing it from a great distance, 

 while the satellites have been likewise captured by their several 

 planets. 



* Cf. A. N.. 4308. 

 ^ A. N., 4341-2. 

 'A. N.. 4343- 



