ORGANISATION OF SCIENCE. 389 



Empire interested in Science and scientific method, in order, 

 by joint action, to convince the people, by means of pubhca- 

 tions and meetings, of the necessity of applying the methods 

 of science to all branches of human endeavour, and thus to 

 further the progress and increase the welfare of the Empire. 

 Another of the objects with which it was founded was to bring 

 "before the Government the scientific aspects of all matters 

 affecting the national welfare; to promote and extend the ap- 

 plication of scientific principles to industrial and general pur- 

 poses; to promote scientific education by encouraging the 

 support of universities and other institutions where the bounds 

 of science are extended or where new applications of science 

 are devised. It is satisfactory to observe that the Guild is 

 receiving loyal support from people interested in all branches 

 of industry to which scientific methods may with advantage be 

 applied, and the time may not be far distant when the State 

 will undertake the work which was voluntarily begun by a few 

 zealous workers." 



CELESTIAL EJECTAMENTA— In the Halley Lecture, 

 recently delivered by Dr. H. Wilde, F.R.S., before the Univer- 

 sity of Oxford, the lecturer, discoursing on certain features 

 of celestial mechanics, declared that the doctrine of the forma- 

 tion of the solar system by the successive condensations of a 

 nebular substance is now more firmly established than ever, 

 .and that the notion that the earth and other planets are solid 

 bodies throughout finds no support from a reasonable con- 

 sideration of the constituents of the earth's crust. If the planet 

 that once revolved between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter had 

 been a body as hard as steel, the convulsion from within that 

 ■caused it to explode and form the asteroids could never have 

 taken place. 



The lecturer controverted the g;eneral opinion of astronomers 

 that comets are strangers to the solar system which have been 

 ■captured in the course of their lawless wanderings through 

 space. He considers them to be planetary ejactamenta, 

 •emanating principally from the larger planets. " The great red 

 spot on Jupiter is probably one of the vents through which 

 comets and cometary satellites have been ejected at different 

 periods in the history of the planet. This view Dr. Wilde 

 considered to be confirmed by the association of certain groups 

 of periodic comets with Jupiter and Neptune, Halley 's" comet 

 being the most notable member of the latter group. The three 

 outer satellites of Jupiter may also, he thinks, be rightlv re- 

 garded as planetary ejectamenta. That the belts and bands 

 noticed on Jupiter, Uranus, and Saturn, are caused by volcanic 

 dust ejected to great heights is probable from the fact that 

 the ejecta from the Krakatoa eruption in 1883 reached a height 

 of 30 miles, forming a band 20 degrees wide on each side of 

 the equator, revolving twice round the globe in 25 days, and 

 being attended by transient hues similar to those on the belts 

 ■of Jupiter. . , 



