THE TIDES 85 



modern cosmogonies the Planetesimal hypothesis of 

 Chamberlin and Moulton, Arrhenius' theory of Light- 

 Pressure, See 's hypothesis of a Kesisting Medium, and 

 the rest, are based in whole or in part on this admittedly 

 false doctrine. Indeed, in the very book in which he 

 gave utterance to the paragraphs just quoted, Darwin 

 goes on and elaborates his grotesque theory of Tidal 

 Evolution, of which, in concluding, he himself speaks in 

 these slighting words (The Tides, p. 284) : 



There is nothing to tell us whether this theory affords the 

 true explanation of the birth of the moon, and I say that it is 

 only a wild speculation incapable of verification. 



To cap the climax of absurdity, the article Tides in 

 the new Britannica was contributed by this same Darwin, 

 and it is given up almost wholly to the exploitation of this 

 "wild speculation incapable of verification" to the ex- 

 clusion of virtually all other pertinent matter ! What a 

 travesty is this on science ! Here we have, in chronologi- 

 cal order: first, Newton 's theory ; second, universal ad- 

 mission of its unsoundness ; third, a complicated elabora- 

 tion of the theory by one who had already condemned it ; 

 fourth, condemnation of the elaboration by its own 

 author ; and fifth, the memorializing of the author and 

 his "wild speculation " in the chief publication of the 

 world ! 



NEWTON'S THEORY OF THE TIDES 



Inasmuch as the tides rise it was natural enough for 

 Newton to surmise, in the first instance, that they are 

 caused by gravitation lifting the waters away from the 

 earth proper ; and inasmuch, also, as there exists a coin- 

 cidence between the moon 's schedule and the schedule of 

 the tides, it was not less natural for him to infer, at least 

 provisionally, that the moon, rather than the sun, is the 

 primary tidal force. Accordingly, he conceived the moon 

 as drawing the oceans immediately under her away from 

 the earth 's solid part or kernel, and the kernel in turn 

 away from the nether oceans, thus causing the double 

 tide that observation reveals to exist. 



