PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



HELD AT PHILADELPHIA 

 FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE 



Vol. XLIX October-December, 1910 No. 197 



FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS ON THE ORIGIN OF THE 



ZONE OF ASTEROIDS AND ON THE CAPTURE 



OF SATELLITES. 



By T. J. J. SEE. 



(Read November 4, igio.) 



In Volume H. of my " Researches on the Evokition of the Stellar 

 Systems," 1910, which has just been published, I have treated at 

 some length of the most important problems connected with the 

 origin of the solar system, and have shown that as regards mode of 

 origin the asteroids are connected with the periodic comets and have 

 been gathered within Jupiter's orbit by the action of that great 

 planet. This conclusion had been anticipated to some extent by the 

 late Professor Stephen Alexander, of Princeton University, as far 

 back as 185 1, and more recently by the late Professor H. A. Newton, 

 of Yale, and by the late M. Callandreau, of tHi, Paris Observatory. 

 The inferences of Newton and Callandreau resulted from their 

 mathematical investigations of the perturbations of Jupiter upon 

 small bodies crossing his orbit. Fortunately the weight of these 

 eminent authorities is such that we need not dwell on the mathe- 

 matical methods of reasoning employed. Our present aim is rather 

 to examine briefly the consequences which follow from this theory, 

 as developed in the second volume of my " Researches," and to 

 make somewhat clearer the significance of certain observed phe- 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. XLIX. I97 X, PRINTED JANUARY 21, I9II. 



