572 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



temperature to account for a primitive disassociation of the elements, 

 and compelled to refer to a nebular stage of the solar system before 

 the vast stores of heat involved in tlie gravitational condensation of 

 matter were liberated, finds himself in the difficulty of not being 

 able to imagine any source whence the vast stores of heat origi- 

 nated. And, again, we recall how the physicist finds his estimate 

 of the energy involved in mere gravitational aggregation inade- 

 quate to afford explanation of past solar heat. It is supposable, 

 on SQch a hypothesis as we have been dwelling on, that the entire 

 subsequent gravitational condensation and conversion of material 

 potential energy, dating from the first formation of matter to the 

 stage of star formation, may be insignificant in amount compared 

 with the conversion of etherial energy attending the crystallizing 

 out of matter from the primitive motions. And thus possibly the 

 conditions then obtaining involved a progressively increasing com- 

 plexity of material structure, the genesis of the elements, from an. 

 infra-hydrogen possessing the simplest material configuration,, 

 resulting ultimately in such self-luminous nebulae as we yet see 

 in the heavens. 



The late Mr. James Oroll, in his Stellar Evolution, finds 

 objections to an eternal evolution, one of which is similar to the 

 "metaphysical" objection urged in this paper. His way out of 

 the difficulty is in the speculation that our stellar system origi- 

 nated by the collision of two masses endowed with relative motion, 

 eternal in past duration, their meeting ushering in the dawn of 

 evolution. I am not sure if the state of aggregation assumed here,, 

 although possibly quite stable, does not, from the known laws of 

 matter and from analogy, call for explanation as probably the 

 result of jDrior diffusion, when, of course, the difficulty is only put 

 back, not set at rest. Nor do I think the primitive collision in 

 harmony with the number of relatively stationary nebulse visible 

 in space. 



The metaphysical objection is, I find, also urged by the Rev. 

 Dr. Salmon, Provost of Trinity College, in favour of the creation 

 of the universe. — {Sermons on Agnosticism.) 



The faith of Professor Winchell, quoted by Mr. Croll, must be 

 added as in many respects similar to the (independent) speculations 

 contained in the foregoing: — " We have not the slightest scientific 



