JOUKNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 41 
Sovereign Sun. The keen-eyed Schiaparelli of Milan has announced 
such to be their relative condition as the result of his observations, 
and these have been corroborated by Percival Lowell and T. J. See, 
working at Lowell Observatory at Arizona, under the very best 
atmospheric conditions. 
The theory of tidal action has an important place in the evolu- 
tion of celestial systems. The nebular hypothesis as suggested by 
Kant and developed by Laplace and modified by G. H. Darwin and 
Poincaré is the most reasonable theory of evolution yet presented. 
Time forbids more than a passing reference to it. Apart from any hy- 
pothesis based on the dynamics of a rotating nebula, and the evolution 
thereirrom accompanied with the attendant phenomenon of tidal 
friction it is interesting to note that very recent investigation of the 
great nebula in Andromeda seem to indicate the lenticular shape 
with its central condensation, the annulation of the outer portions 
and even the condensation in the rings which are destined to form 
planets. The Scriptures of the sky, therefore, appear to reveal to us 
Nature in parturition, and a celestial system being evolved before 
our very eyes in the great nebula of Andromeda. By the theory of 
tidal friction our Moon took her origin very near to the present sur- 
face of the Earth: To account for the orbits of the satellites of 
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune, we must have recourse to the 
nebular hypothesis. The Earth-Moon system is unique. The Earth 
is only 80 times the weight of the Moon, while Saturn weighs about 
4,600 times as much as its Satellite Titan, which is the giant satellite 
of the solar system. All other satellites in other systems but ours 
are infinitesimally small in comparison with their primaries. As a 
reason explanatory of this peculiarity of the Earth-Moon system it 
should be remembered that the Earth is nearer to the Sun than any 
other planet attended by a satellite. By the nebular hypothesis 
rings are, so to speak, shed from the central nucleus when the neb- 
ula has contracted sufficiently to create a proper degree of increase 
of rotation. If fromany external cause this rotation is retarded then 
the genesis of the ring is retarded or indeed may be entirely pre- 
vented, The friction of the solar tides furnishes this external cause. 
We therefore find that Mercury and Venus have no satellites, the 
Earth has one, Mars two, Jupiter five, and all the exterior planets 
