THE NEW COSMOGONY. 



By T. J. J. SEE. 

 (Read April 21, 1911.) 



The results established in the writer's " Researches on the Evo- 

 lution of the Stellar Systems," Vol. II., 1910, have given a new basis 

 to our conceptions of the cosmogony. Instead of the traditional 

 doctrine of throwing off, we now have that of capture, which means 

 essentially that the nuclei originated in the distance and have since 

 grown by accretion as they approached the centers about which 

 they now revolve in greatly reduced orbits of small eccentricity. 

 Not only have we witnessed a radical change in the point of view, 

 but also in the method of research employed. And along with these 

 changes has come the introduction of rigorous mathematical and 

 dynamical criteria by which the mechanical principles involved may 

 be extended over an almost unlimited period of time. 



Not the least important of the improvements recently introduced 

 is that resulting from a careful examination of the premises under- 

 lying our reasoning. Nothing is adopted from tradition, nor taken 

 for granted, nor from any authority however high ; but every ques- 

 tion is examined on its merits and from the very ground up. As the 

 subject is new it naturally follows that much still remains to be done ; 

 yet the general trend of nature's laws seems to be well established, 

 and cosmogony begins to assume the form of a true science. Ac- 

 cordingly it may not be without interest to the general reader to 

 summarize in one connected view the leading principles of the new 

 science of cosmogony, with brief analysis of the criteria by which 

 they are confirmed. 



I. Babinet's criterion based on the mechanical principle of the 

 conservation of areas, by which we are enabled to calculate the 

 times of rotation of the sun and planets when expanded to fill the 

 orbits of their attendant bodies, as imagined by Laplace. This 

 enables us to say at once that the attendant bodies could never have 



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