\ 



THE 



WESTERN REYIEW OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



A MONTHLY RECORD OF PROGRESS IN 



Science, Mechanic Arts and Agriculture. 



VOL. 1. NOVEMBER, 1877. NO. 9. 



ASTRONOMY. 



On the Dispersion of Heat and Forces capable of producing tKer- 

 Heat and Light and all the Resultant Phenomena in the Solar" 

 System. 



BY JUDGE E. p. AVEST, KANSAS CITY, MO. 



If we accept the nebular hypothesis as true, as most of the astronomers^- 

 of the pi-esent day, I believe, do, — and nothing accounts so well for all the- 

 known phenomena of the solar system, — we must believe that the heat of 

 the sun and of all the planets and their satellites is gradually being dissi- 

 pated, and that ultimately, unless some unknown source of heat is supply- 

 ing the waste, they will become cold, dead bodies, inactive so far as heat 

 and its attendant phenomena affect them. 



It is true that Mr. Proctor, in a recent address,* claims that our world 

 has been partly, at least, built up by accretion, but there is no sufficieBfc 

 evidence to sustain this position. There is nothing to prove that our earths 

 has been increased perceptibly by this cause. If w^e admit that it has beert 

 so increased, we must assume that there was formerly a much greater in- 

 drawing of extrinsic matter than now, an assumption we have no sufficient 

 reason to indulge. We have as'much reason to believe that the fall of me- 



*Address before the Kansas City Academy of Science. 1576. 



