282 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



5. 



Kant's 

 nebular 

 theory. 



of the earth, another philosopher of the highest rank 

 took an important step in the direction of the study of 

 the genesis of things natural, on the largest scale. It 

 was Immanuel Kant, the philosopher of Konigsberg, who, 

 stimulated by the perusal of the cosmical theories of 

 Thomas Wright of Durham, 1 applied the principles of 

 the Newtonian philosophy in a first attempt to trace out 

 the great stages in the formation of a planetary system. 



1 The work of Wright is not so 

 rare as it is represented to be by 

 foreign writers, as I picked up two 

 copies from a second-hand catalogue 

 several years ago. It is chiefly 

 interesting as having induced Kant 

 to venture on his genetic specula- 

 tions, which appeared anonymously 

 at Konigsberg in 1855, and for a long 

 time remained unknown. About 

 the same time as Kant, the cele- 

 brated mathematician J. H. Lam- 

 bert published his ' Cosmological 

 Letters on the Structure of the 

 Universe' (Augsburg, 1761), many 

 ideas in which coincide with the 

 later expositions of Herschel and 

 Laplace, which were based on quite 

 different considerations. The specu- 

 lations of Wright, Lambert, and 

 Herschel were what we may call 

 morphological, whereas it is the 

 merit of Kant and Laplace to have 

 built upon the ideas as to the 

 architecture of the universe a 

 plausible theory of its genesis. A 

 full account of Wright's suggestions, 

 which were accompanied by very 

 beautiful mezzotint engravings exe- 

 cuted by himself, is given by Prof. 

 R. A. Sampson of Durham in the 

 ' Proceedings of the Society of Anti- 

 quaries ' of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 

 vol. vii. p. 99. 



Kant's theory has been dealt with 

 by Helmholtz in his Konigsberg ad- 

 dress (1854), "Ueber die Wechsel- 

 wirkung der Naturkraf te " (' Vor- 

 triige und Reden,' vol. i.), by Faye 



(' Sur 1'Origine du Monde,' Paris, 



1885, 2nd ed.), by C. Wolf (' Les 

 Hypotheses Cosmogoniques,' Paris, 



1886, which contains a translation 

 of Kant's work), and by G. F. 

 Becker (Amer. Journal of Science, 

 1898). It is, however, to be noted 

 that recent writers on Astronomy 

 are inclined to speak of the genetic 

 theories of the universe very much 

 in the same way as Humboldt 

 treated them in his ' Kosmos, ' 

 which professedly excluded the 

 historical aspect in favour of a 

 purely descriptive treatment, recog- 

 nising the many difficulties which 

 stand in the way of a consistent 

 elaboration of the "nebular hypo- 

 thesis." See A. Berry's ' History 

 of Astronomy' (1898), p. 409; R. 

 Wolf, ' Handbuch der Astronomic ' 

 (vol. i., 1890), p. 594; G. H. 

 Darwin, 'The Tides' (1898), p. 

 302 ; also J. Scheiner, ' Der Bau des 

 Weltalls' (Leipzig, 1901). On the 

 additional great support which 

 has been given to a genetic con- 

 ception in general in the second 

 half of the nineteenth century by 

 Thermodynamics and Spectrum 

 Analysis I shall speak later on. 

 The writings of M. Faye in France, 

 and of Sir Norman Lockyer in this 

 country, utilise to the fullest extent 

 the arguments derivable from these 

 sources, and mark a great con- 

 trast to the manner in which cos- 

 mological questions were treated 

 by A. von Humboldt. 



