67 



stand this change when we remember that each planet, 

 in fulfilment of its vital function is discharging its maxi- 

 mum of oxo-hydrogen, and that this freed gas is haste- 

 ning with tremendous velocity towards its goal. This 

 solar current might be directly perpendicular to the solar 

 disc if the planets remained without changing their posi- 

 tion, but as each planet is always moving, the stream 

 flowing from it travels in a sharply curved line with the 

 result that the various planetary ribbons of moving gas 

 present a kind of network which becomes more densely 

 interwoven as it approaches the sun. 



A comet falling into the orbit of Neptune necessarily 

 strikes the planetary stream, and surrendering to its 

 force, falls into the tide of the solar system. At the 

 same time the sun begins to act upon it through the po- 

 wer of its heat rays, a power which acts as we have 

 seen as a repulsive force. This power is in direct pro- 

 portion to the proximity of its source; the nearer the sun 

 the more effectively it operates, the more remote, the more 

 feebly. 



Surrendering itself to the flow of gases from Neptune, 

 our comet might be expected to arrive at a point of 

 equilibrium where the pressure of gas in one direc- 

 tion would be effectually counter-poised by the pres- 

 sure of solar rays in another. Here its progress 

 would naturally be arrested. This however does 

 not accord with the solar scheme which demands 

 cosmic nourishment for the sun's consumption. And 

 so we find that with every step towards the sun 

 the planetary stream grows stronger, planet after planet 

 lending its quota to the mass, and so increasing the ge- 

 neral drift as to render the comet's escape impossible 

 Driven by the force of these gases right on to the solar 

 furnace, the comet body leaves for combustion a mass 

 of its material, while the remainder, under the driving 

 influence of radiant solar heat, is thrown out into space 

 outside the orbits of the planets, where, resigning itself 

 once more to the general cosmic tide, it again drifts along 



