75 



nution and subsequent disappearance of its stars is an 

 incontrovertible proof of dissolution, indicating that in 

 the not distant future our astronomers will read in its 

 spectrum the lines of incandescent oxygen, hydrogen and 

 azote. 



Finally the cloud-masses in the constellations of the 

 Maiden and the Hunting Hounds by their very form pre- 

 sent the appearance of dissolving bodies. 



Having thus glanced at the planetary clouds as extinct 

 solar systems it will not be very difficult to find their 

 connection with the comet world, or, in clearer terms, 

 with the scattered cloudspots floating in cosmic space. 



As soon as a solar system becomes extinct, the uni- 

 versal element of oxo-hydrogen comes to its aid, striving 

 with all its might to support the process of dissolution. 



We ask naturally at this point how suns perish? 



There are two causes for this phenomenon: insuffici- 

 ency of cosmic nourishment and lack of oxygen to main- 

 tain combustion. As oxygen is the product of the pla- 

 nets it may happen that some of these orbs, having de- 

 veloped into double stars, pass out of their former system, 

 since all such double stars lie outside solar systems and 

 have independent orbits of their own. 



As soon as a planet leaves its sun the combustion of 

 the latter is lessened, a diminution of energy that reacts 

 injuriously on the remaining planets, which, accustomed 

 to a certain quantity of heat, feel its abatement, and re- 

 spond by a reduction ot vegetable life. A corresponding 

 reduction in the planetary production of oxygen is a ne- 

 cessary consequence, and the sun, no longer nourished 

 in sufficient quantity, gradually dies out till it becomes a 

 lifeless though still incandescent globe Cosmic gas now 

 appears on the scene and, by its energy, tears into 

 pieces the dying sun, preparing from it in this way that 

 cosmic material for living worlds which we call planetary 

 cloud. The unbroken spectrum disappears and lines take 

 its place; lines of nitrogen, the former constructive solar 

 element; lines of oxygen, the gas which still maintains 



