NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS, 23 



position of a greater degree of obliquity in the 

 inclination of the axis of the planet to the plane of 

 its orbit than what we find in several others. The 

 same causes which made the inclination of the axis 

 of Venus towards her orbit 75 degrees, may have 

 turned that of Uranus a little further along, and 

 so reversed the position of his poles. The ad- 

 mitted inclination of the axis of Uranus towards 

 the plane of his orbit is 79 degrees, being the 

 greatest found in any of the planets. This im- 

 plies only the necessity for an increase of inclina- 

 tion to the extent of 22 degrees, or about one- 

 fourth of the quadrant, in order to account for the 

 surmised reverse arrangement. Nor are causes for 

 such a phenomenon far to seek. In the revolu- 

 tion of the presumed nebular mass, there would 

 be great undulations, as I venture to say there 

 would be found in any similar body which we might 

 set into a similar rotatory motion. Such I esteem 

 as the causes of the departure of the planetary 

 axes from the vertical. A curve in the outermost 

 I portion, amounting to a fold — like the curl of a 

 high wave — would cause the bouleversement of 

 Uranus, and the consequent (apparent) retro- 

 gression of his satellites. 



