29 



deduced. These laws are taught as such to the present 

 day, and we will therefore glance at the foundation upon 

 which they rest. 



The atmosphere of the earth presses upon its surface 

 with a force of 16 Ib. to the square inch, as we clearly 

 see by the quicksilver barometer, and therefore, as New- 

 ton's apple possesses no force of resistance to this pres- 

 sure, where could it be expected to fall but upon the 

 earth ? Hence Newtons laws of distance and mass cart 

 refer only to the pressure of azote as we shall see after- 

 wards, and not to any principle of gravitation. 



In fact the application of this principle to the plane- 

 tary worlds cannot stand anything like serious criticism, 

 since, by the precisely defined laws of gravitation, the 

 planets of Jupiter and Saturn would long ago have col- 

 lided and fallen into the sun, a catastrophe for which we 

 are still waiting. 



So far as concerns the laws of movement of the pla- 

 netary orbits it is easy to convince oneself of their inade- 

 quacy. 



Let us imagine that we have in our hands a benzoin 

 or gas motor, which we attach to an elastic rope fasten- 

 ed at the other end to some point of resistance. We 

 now let out our motor into space. According to the 

 theory of cosmic gravitation as soon as it reaches the 

 extreme limit of resistance of the elastic ligature, the 

 driving power of the motor must also begin to divide 

 into the parallelogram of forces and begin to act wi- 

 thin an orbit round its point of fixture. But in fact it 

 comes to a stand and remains motionless, or, if the 

 driving force is too great, the machine breaks under its 

 pressure and will refuse to act. 



If we take two large bodies and drop them from a 

 great height at the same moment, and at a given distance 

 from one another, they will fall to the earth at precisely, 

 the same distance, whereas, in accordance with New- 

 ton's laws, such bodies must approach one another in 

 their descent. In this manner the two fundamental pro- 



