CONSOLIDATION OF NEBLM --31 



would "remain expanded about the nucleus in the 

 shape of a very extended atmosphere ; or it may be of 

 an elastio nature, and be kept from uniting with the 



the planets to be expanded about them. In this ease 

 we have another property of the nebulous substance to 

 .i-M to the forme i matter." 



No one can read even an out lino of these interesting 

 speculations by an aI\ -ntun -r into tho workshops of 

 creat i feeling aw. 1 i.y the l*>ldness and 



MiMiniii \ s as well as desirous of knowing 



what else he saw in his m.i r thought li- 



saw, of the mach What he has told 



us of a in no of nebulous matter in th; 



iiirh these nebula) seem to approach, is an 

 ; consolidation," nn<i t) faintness 



i the parts outside the nucleus arises 

 "a gradual diminution of the length and density <>f th<- 



Ions matter, occasioned by its gr. 



tho nucleus into which it probably subside*. " l !! 



believes that "a prvr >und nebula about a 



quarter or one minute in diameter, and looking no 



bigger than a pea, may have shrunk into itself till it is 



nineteen hundred times more dense than at first, 



a proportion of density more it of 



water to In .m th. r case he calculates that 



tli-- c.i nay have reduced the nebulous 



matter to less than the one hundred an<l i\\ 



in. 1th part of it* former bulk." 1 To understand 



what these figures mean, suppose a sphere whose 



is is nearly three thousand millions of miles, or as 



far as from th< > U n to our outermost known planet, 



>/. TVaiu., 1811, pp. SOS, 310, 311, 315, 316, 318. 



