374 T. C. CHAM BERLIN 



In the considerations now set forth, there seems to be war- 

 rant for the proposition that solid bodies may suffer fragmentation 

 witlunit actual collision, zvith other bodies, and that the bodies so dis- 

 rupted may co?istit7ite comets so lo7ig as the fragmeiits remain clustered, 

 and that when these fragments become dispersed, they may cojtstitute 

 ojie variety of meteorites. Only the first part of the proposition 

 is novel — if indeed that is — for the disintegration of comets 

 into meteorites is an accepted doctrine. The characteristics of 

 comets other than their fragmental structure will need to be con- 

 sidered, but this may best be taken up later. 



The foregoing conclusion, as a purely ideal proposition, does 

 not appear to need discussion, unless the fundamental deduc- 

 tions of Roche, Maxwell, and others are questioned. Nor does 

 its application to the adventitious cases of wandering bodies per- 

 mit definite discussion, for neither the nature nor the number of 

 such bodies is known ; nor is the likelihood of their close 

 approach to other bodies capable of estimation. But, on the 

 probable supposition that the stars are centers of systems like 

 our sun, there are hypothetical cases of approach of these sys- 

 tems to each other that by disturbance of the planetary orbits 

 may lead on to disruptive approach of the individual bodies, and 

 thus give effective application to the doctrine ; and these invite 

 consideration. It must be confessed that these cases, likewise, 

 cannot be discussed with much satisfaction, since the movements 

 of the assumed solar systems and their relations to each other 

 are but very imperfectly known. Present data, however, war- 

 rant the assumption that the stars and their attendants are mov- 

 ing in various directions at various velocities, and that they are 

 probably not controlled by any central body ; nor do the}^ prob- 

 ably follow concentric orbits so adjusted to each other as to for- 

 bid close approaches. The conception that the movements of 

 the stars are somewhat analogous to those of the molecules of 

 an exceedingly attenuated gas in an open space, actuated by the 

 attraction of their common but dispersed mass, seems the most 

 probable that can be entertained in the present state of knowl- 

 edge. It may at least be made the basis for the assumptions 

 necessary to further discuss the doctrine in hand. 



