TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL MERTING. 13 
ages, leave the body of the Sun in a viscous condition, and spots formed under 
such circumstance will become permanently fixed in the form of craters possess- 
ing the essential characteristics of the lunar craters. Not only the forms that 
are typical or normal, but those that are broken and misshapen, with rims, in 
some cases elevated several thousands of feet above the surrounding surface, but 
slightly pushed up in others; with cavities reaching in some instances to im- 
mense depths; and with fissures and streaks, in straight or irregular lines, will 
all be found to dot the solar surface as abundantly as do those upon the face of the 
Moon. If there should be neither atmosphere nor moisture, then and there, all 
the rugged forms and appearances, the precise counterparts of those upon the 
Moon, will mark the period when the Sun will have ceased to radiate heat and 
light throughout the solar system, and will have become a dark, dead body, ready 
for some great catastrophe by which it may be transformed into another and per- 
haps more beautiful system. 
Taking the Sun as an example of a mode of action, is it beyond the realm of 
truth and of science to formulate a theory for the Moon similar to that which is 
now at work, and is actually passing before our eyes, upon the Sun? The neb- 
ular hypothesis gives us a starting-point —a lunar ring, at first complete it may 
be, then broken into a multitude of fragments. Gravitation molded these frag- 
ments into a veritable planet that was to be our nearest neighbor. In its earliest 
.stages, the Moon was not a solid, rigid body, but a mass of gaseous or liquid 
matter in a condition of white heat. In time it contracted its volume; heat was 
evolved ; and intense action set up in the mass. The results would be noticeable 
upon the surface; and manifestations of protuberances and other phenomena, 
similar to those of the Sun, would naturally follow. As the ages rolled by, the 
heat would disappear in part by radiation, and partly by absorption, to be stored 
away as latent heat. As there was no atmosphere nor moisture, the resulting 
form of the Moon’s surface then would constitute a photograph of its condition 
true to life as long as the solar system should endure. 
In conclusion, therefore, is not the assumption that the Moon-spot theory, to 
coin a term, is in sufficient harmony with well-established mathematical and 
dynamic principles to constitute a theory of as great importance as any other, 
and perhaps more satisfactory in that it meets the conditions of, astronomical 
science at all points ? 
This fourth theory does not claim to discard entirely the volcanic agencies, or 
the impact of meteors, or tidal action, but it does claim to be more general in its 
operations, more wide-reaching, and yet allowing to a certain extent the agencies 
of other forces as restricted and collateral, within limits. 
The contraction of the Sun’s mass, the development of heat, and the immense 
energy consequent upon that development, as seen in splendid outbursts of the 
protuberances, the formation of sun-spots which, crossing the Sun’s disc, pre- 
sent such wonderful changes in form, size, and movement, may not all this be 
but a transcript of the story that the Moon might tell concerning the events that 
took place upon and within the lunar mass millions of years ago? May not the 
present condition of the Moon’s surface be a prophecy of what the Sun’s will be 
in the far-distant future ? 
The energy of lunar heat when the Moon was an incandescent body must have 
manifested itself in results similar to those which the energy of solar heat now 
produces. The one is but a type of the other. 
