90 STATEMENTAI^DEXPOSITIONOr 



major diameter. Accumulations of material, or the contrary, must also exist, in 

 the maintenance of the dynamical equilibrium loliere the central forces of earth 

 and moon act at an angle with one another ; somewhat, it may be, like that which 

 appears in Fig. 14, at Article (80). 



Examples of observed phenomena are afterwards given ; and in (95) eight par- 

 ticulars are specified, in which the whole hypothesis seems, thus far, to be consis- 

 tent with the observed phenomena. 



The resemblances and differences of the Girdle and Saturn's Dushy Ring are 

 stated in (98). 



^\st. The late Sears C. Walker in a personal communication to the author of 

 this paper, made some years since, was understood to say, that he had computed 

 what would be the time of rotation of the now existing Earth, if its material were 

 given a ring-like form extending to the Kirkwood limits ; and that he had found a 

 year for the time of rotation, as the Laplace Nebular Hypothesis would require. 



Prof Benjamin Peirce, commenting on the explanation of the rotation of the 

 planets on their axes, as deduced from the nebular hypothesis of Laplace, and rea- 

 soning especially with regard to Jupiter and Saturn, is understood to have " demon- 

 strated, by a mathematical analysis of the movements of the particles constituting 

 the liquid ring, that the velocities of the resulting rotations of those planets must 

 be such as are actually observed." No authentic information of this, however, 

 seems as yet to have been made public. 



[Then Maxwell Hall, Esq., (109), would establish a connexion between the mass 

 of a central body, sun or planet, and its period of axial rotation, and certain 

 approximate ratios developed from the so-called Bode's Law.] 



In the statement of Consistencies no allusion has been made to the coincidences 

 in the times of revolution of the planets with the respective times of rotation of 

 the sun with an atmosphere supposed to be expanded successively to the distances 

 of the planets. Sufficient data for this are not attainable. 



Other coincidences not sufficiently accurate have not been insisted on in the 

 enumeration ; and conjectures, like that in (97), with respect to the Aurora, cannot 

 yet be verified. The giving of undue weight to the result, in any instance, has, 

 withal, been carefully guarded against. 



In view, however, of all the consistencies which have now been enumerated, the 

 inquiry whether these can all he incidental, would seem at once to suggest its own 

 negative answer. 



But whether that, indeed, be so or no, a single additional statement should, if 

 possible, once for all, be made emphatic : — 



The special relations exhibited in Section II. (designedly stated without 



REFERENCE TO ANT THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS), AND THE OTHER PHENOMENA 



detailed in Section TIL, at least in so far as mere numerical relations are 



CONCERNED — ALL THESE, FROM FIRST TO LAST, DEPEND UPON EXISTING FACTS OR RELA- 

 TIONS IN THE Solar System itself ; and so must endure while the system lasts, 



THOUGH every HYPOTHESIS WITH REGARD TO THOSE RELATIONS SHOULD BE REJECTED. 



