August io, 191 i] 



NATURE 



175 



SPECULATIVE COSMOGONY. 

 Essai de Cosmogonie tourbillonnaire. By E. Belot. 

 Pp. xi + 280. (Paris: Gauthier and Villars, 191 1.) 

 Price 10 francs. 



THE preface to this volume of speculative cos- 

 mogony will not raise much hope in the mind 

 of the orthodox or sceptical man of science. " Faisant 

 table rase de toutes les mdthodes actuelles de la 

 mecanique celeste specialement cre^ees pour des astres 

 isol^s . . . il doit chercher par la pure logique 

 appuy^e sur 1 'experience comment ces corps ont pu 

 r^aliser tons leurs mouvements actuels. . . ." The 

 advice is too sweeping to be readily accepted. The 

 phenomena which the one new theory is to explain are 

 so varied and numerous that suspicion is at once 

 aroused against the arguments employed. 



A hypothesis that, in a short chapter of twenty-seven 

 pages, is to account for "les alignements d'etoiles, 

 les e^oiles doubles, multiples; les amas d'etoiles; les 

 nebuleuses amorphes, plan^taires, annulaires, ellip- 

 tiques, les etoiles nebuleuses, les nebuleuses spirales, 

 les courants d'etoiles " must be well grounded to stand 

 any reasonable chance of general acceptance. And 

 when this hypothesis is also to explain the solar 

 periodicity and equatorial acceleration and the masses, 

 mean distances, and inclinations of the planets, even 

 the most credulous mind must pause before giving 

 adhesion to the new views. It is true that in the 

 law of gravitation an explanation of a vast number 

 of diverse phenomena was sought. But gravitation 

 could be and has been triumphantly put to the supreme 

 test of prophecy. The alternative law put forward by 

 M. Belot as replacing gravitation in an earlier stage in 

 the evolution of the present cosmos can be put to no 

 such test. At the best it can be shown more or less 

 satisfactorily to lead to the present condition of affairs 

 and to suggest views about some phenomena other 

 than those commonly held. 



The suggestion that a spiral nebula is revolving in 

 the direction of the increasing radius of its arms mav 

 be verified by the spectroscope, but such a discovery 

 would not in any real sense prove the truth of the 

 theories of M. Belot. Neither facts nor argu- 

 ments of sufficient weight have been brought forward 

 to call for very serious consideration of his views. 



Put very briefly, M. Belot 's account of the evolution 

 of our solar system amounts to this. Some 90,000,000 

 years ago a vortex-tube, moving through space at a 

 speed of about 75,000 kilometres per second, encoun- 

 tered a slowly moving mass of nebulous gas. In the 

 subsequent disturbance huge vibrations were set up 

 in the vortex which led to the throwing off of succes- 

 sive portions forming the planets of the system. In 

 a matter of two years the nova formed by the collision 

 had expanded into the solar system, and in the manner 

 of this expansion, coupled with a one-sided develop- 

 ment of the planetary portions, lies the meaning of 

 the present constants of our system. 



M. Belot seeks by ingenious methods to justify cer- 

 tain curious empirical laws which he has found to fit 

 the rotation-periods, inclinations, and mean distances 

 of most of the planets. In these empirical laws and 

 NO. 2l8o, VOL. 87] 



the many facts about different parts of the sola 

 system which M. Belot has gathered together wil 

 probably lie the chief interest of the book to seriou 

 students of cosmogony. 



For those who are unable to read the book as : 

 whole but desire to gather the views of the author 

 a very complete account is given in the las 

 chapter of the book. M. Belot, in his insistence 01 

 the importance of the energy of initial translator 

 motion upon the evolution of our system, may hav 

 brought into deserved prominence a factor which othe 

 cosmogonists have overlooked. It is true that i 

 hardly seems to fit in with the fact that increasinj 

 stellar velocity generally accompanies increase in age 

 while the extremely high velocities required by M 

 Belot seem out of the question. Still, the idea ma 

 prove a useful addition to cosmological speculations 

 The second great point of the book — the need an> 

 use of a universal dualism e to explain the phenomen 

 of the heavens — does not seem likely to be fertile c 

 useful results. It leads the author to the followinj 

 fantastic comparison between the celestial and th 

 organic world : — 



" Le tourbillon qui penetre dans la nebuleuse se mc 

 a vibrer dans le choc ; a chacune de ces vibration 

 correspond une emission de matiere, qui se melangean 

 a celle de la nebuleuse, va constituer l'embryon plan^ 

 taire. Puis dans la nebuleuse se dessine un vast 

 ovoide a l'interieur duquel se trouvent enfermes tou 

 les noyaux de planetes directes ; pendant leur crois 

 sance ces noyaux sont relies a la nebuleuse par d 

 longs filaments tourbillonnaires, veritables cordons orr 

 bilicaux amenant les aliments cosmiques aux deu: 

 poles de chaque ceuf planetaire " ! 



BRITISH LICHEN FLORA. 

 A Monograph 0} the British Lichens: a Descriptiv 

 Catalogue of the Species in the Department c 

 Botany, British Museum. Part ii. By Anne L 

 Smith. Pp. v + 409 + 59 plates. (London: Printe 

 by order of the Trustees of the British Museurr 

 and sold by Longmans and Co., B. Quaritch, Dula 

 and Co., Ltd., and at the British Museum (Naturj 

 History), 191 1.) Price 20s. 



THE appearance of the second volume of th 

 " British Museum Catalogue of British Lichens 

 has been looked forward to eagerly by lichenologist 

 for some time. This fact will be realised when it i 

 recalled that the first volume, written by Crombif 

 was reviewed in these columns so long ago as 189: 

 Crombie was one of the last of the more prominer 

 lichenologists to protest against the dual nature c 

 the lichen thallus. The author of the new volume 

 however, belongs to the modern school, and we then 

 fore find the algal constituents of the lichens give 

 their correct names. The gonidia are thus mor 

 accurately defined, and the determination of the gener 

 is greatly facilitated. 



The descriptions of the species are given in term 

 which will be more easily understood than the ver 

 technical words used in the previous volume, and i 

 is clear that they have been compiled with very gres 

 care, for as a rule they are very much to the poini 



