NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 17 



along by this last movement, and revolve for some 

 time round the disc. Those which revolve at the 

 same time upon themselves, consequently, then 

 present the cruious spectacle of planets revolving 

 at the same time on themselves and in their orbits. 

 Finally, another very curious effect is also mani- 

 fested in these circumstances : besides three or four 

 large spheres into which the ring resolves itself, 

 there are almost always produced one or two very 

 small ones, which may thus be compaied to 

 satellites. The experiment which we have thus 

 described presents, as we see, an image in minia- 

 ture of the formation of the planets, according to 

 the hypothesis of Laplace, by the ruptiu*e of the 

 cosmical rings attributable to the condensation of 

 the solar atmosphere."* 



Such illustrations certainly tend to take from 

 the nebular cosmogony the character of a " splen- 

 did vision," which one of my critics has applied 

 to it. I may here also remind the reader that 

 there are other grounds for this hypothesis, besides 

 observations on the nebulae. Overlooking the 



* Pr. Plateau on the Phenomena presented by a free Liquid 

 Mass withdrawn from the action of gravity. Taylor's Scientific 

 Memoirs. November, 1844. 



