152 T. C. CHAM BERLIN 



integers of the mass it was a prime source of turbulence and danger 

 of dispersion. In so far as molecules were driven by it beyond the 

 sphere of control of the common mass, they took courses of their 

 own and, in the main, either returned by elliptical paths to the 

 sun or became planetesimals. The danger of dispersion at this 

 stage was a serious menace to all the minor masses whose self- 

 control was feeble; at the same time it was a prolific source of 

 planetesimal food for the growth of the nuclei later. 



The hypothesis assumes that a part of the out-shot masses 

 contained matter enough to give them self-control. The effective- 

 ness of their control increased as they passed from the more intense 

 to the less intense field of the sun's control, except as they lost 

 material. But such self-control is not postulated of more than a 

 part — probably less than half — the matter projected from the 

 sun, the more scattered portion becoming planetesimals at once or 

 else returning to the sun. Effective self-control is only assigned to 

 a few of the greater eruptions, or, to be specific, to four of the 

 major order, to form the nuclei of the four giant planets, and to 

 four of the minor order, to form the nuclei of the terrestrial planets. 

 But subordinate to these, perhaps a thousand or so little knots 

 succeeded in holding themselves together and later grew into planet- 

 oids and satellites. It is thus assumed that there arose, as a result 

 of eruptive projection and partial dispersion, a graded series 

 of knots ranging from those that were massive enough to form the 

 nuclei of the great planets down through medium and smaller knots 

 to masses too small to hold themselves together in the face of the 

 dissipating influences. It was of course in the lower ranges of this 

 graded series that there arose the more critical questions of self- 

 control and of permanent maintenance. The answers to these 

 critical questions hung, in each individual case, very largely upon 

 gravitative competency. 



Now we need not dwell on the largest order of knots, for they 

 do not enter our problem. Their strong attractions enabled them 

 to hold their own, except for a small percentage of molecules that 

 attained exceptional cumulative speeds, while, on the other hand, 

 they were able to pick up stray planetesimals that came within 

 their spheres of control in a favorable way. And so in the end, 



