1875.] 6-0 [Chase. 



the particles in the equatorial plane of the nucleus orbits of increasing 



2 - _ 

 eccentricity, until they ultimately become linear, and, when — "^"o — 



TT P 



y^ *'«, the velocity of dissociation is reached, and all the energy be- 

 comes actual. This velocity, as I have already shown, is the velocity 

 of light. 



If we consider Sun as a molecule in infinite space, in a trochoidal 

 wave-stratum, every particle alternately approaches a given point and 

 recedes, during a half-rotation. The projectile or attractive force, at 

 or near Sun's surface, which would give this alternate approach 



and retreat, may be represented by gravity acting for a half-rotation, .j- 

 which would also give the velocity of light. As the time of rotation 



gt 

 varies inversely as gravity, -- has been, and will be constant, however 



much Sun may have been exx^anded or may hereafter contract. 



In order that there may be such "mutual interchange of relations" as 

 is needed for life and phenomenal change, there must be both resem- 

 blance and difference. There must be space and time, and also position, 

 with some degree of fixity in space and time. A universally undulating, 

 homogeneous sether, could manifest no variety, unless its undulations were 

 in some way intercepted, and directed to definite points for definite pur- 

 poses. There must be both elasticity and inertia, and differences of elas- 

 ticity and inertia. In an expanded nebulous disc, with tendencies to 

 nucleal aggregation at different points, those conditions would all be 

 supplied. Every point of gross inertia, intercepting undulations from 

 every direction would set up centripetal actions and centrifugal reactions, 

 with tendencies to mutual compensations and equilibrium, which would 

 give rise to physical forces in great variety. 



In the second volume of Gould's Astronomical Journal, published in 

 1852, Prof. Stephen Alexander gave numerous nebular expositions, one 

 of which treated of the Milky Way as a spiral with four branches. In 

 the Proceedings of the Royal Astronomical Society for December, 1869, 

 Proctor gave a paper entitled "A New Theory of the Milky Way," 

 which also described it as being a spiral. In a paper read before the 

 American Philosophical Society, September 20, 1872, 1 called attention to 

 the following, among other facts : 



"In the solar-focal parabola which passes through a Centauri and has 

 its directrix in a linear centre of oscillation of a solar diameter,' twenty- 

 seven successive abscissas may be taken in regular progression. 



r ^,^(^^'').^±Wc('^')l 



between the Star and the Sun's surface, nine of which will be extra 

 planetary, nine will be in simple planetary relations, and nine will be 

 iutra-planetary. 



" The upper extra-planetary abscissa bears nearly the same ratio to the 



