253 THE NEBULAK HYPOTHESIS. 



ness in the line of movement produced by local attractions 

 there will be a further indirectness produced by the un- 

 equal reactions of the medium; and there is no reason for 

 supposing that this must be equalled by opposite indirect- 

 nesses elseAvhere. All such secondary indirectnesses, con- 

 sidered apart from those produced by gravitation, will tend 

 to bring the concentrating flocculi to one or other side 

 of the common centre of gravit}- ; and parts of their 

 acquired velocities, as they approach the common centre 

 of gravity, will thus be resolved into motions round the 

 common centre of gravity. If a tangential force acting on 

 mass having some cohesion, must produce some rotation ; 

 then some rotation must be produced by a flocculus pene- 

 trating obliquely a medium increasing in density towards its 

 centre. Clearl}-, however, their respective movements will 

 be deflected, not towards the side of the common centre of 

 gravity, but towards various sides. How then can there 

 result a general movement of them in the same direction ? 

 Very simply. Each flocculus, in describing its spiral course, 

 must give motion to the rarer medium through which it is 

 moving. Now, the probabilities are infinity to one against 

 all the respective motions thus impressed on this rarer me- 

 dium, balancing one another. And if they do not balance 

 one another, the inevitable result must be a rotation of 

 the whole mass of the rarer medium in one direction. But 

 preponderating momentum in one direction, having caused 

 rotation of the medium in that direction, the rotating me- 

 dium must in its turn gradually arrest such flocculi as are 

 moving in opposition, and impress its ow^n motion upon 

 them ; and thus there will ultimately be formed a rotating 

 medium with suspended flocculi partaking of its motion. 



Before comparing these conclusions with the facts, let 

 us pursue the reasoning a little fiu'ther, and observe the 

 subordinate actions, and the endless modifications which 

 will result from them. The respective flocculi must not 

 only be di-awn towards their common centre of gravity, 



