178 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
that nebule have been observed to vary and disappear, which is clearly 
impossible with a galaxy like our milky way. I will only give one other 
extract from among a large number. It is from the same work (‘ Proctor on 
the Universe”), which is wholly devoted to demonstrate these conclusions. 
** The phenomena I have been discussing seem to point to conclusions very 
different from those which have been usually accepted respecting the visible 
universe. Instead of separating the stars and nebule into distinct systems, 
or rather of looking on the stellar system as a member of the system of 
nebule, we seem compelled to look on almost every object visible even in 
the most powerful telescope, as a portion of one system, which comprises 
within its range, simple, multiple, and clustering stars, irresolvable nebulæ, 
gaseous bodies of symmetrical and unsymmetrical figure, and in all pro- 
bability myriads of other forms of matter as yet undetected.” 
These are the more general conclusions as to the constitution of the 
heavens. There is a great deal of special evidence pointing the same way ; 
but I can only mention it here. I refer to the fact that nearly all the tempo- 
rary and variable stars are in the milky way, the community of motion of 
groups of stars, the tendency to stream formation, and the special character 
of the milky way nebule. But what I have already discussed is sufficient to 
show distinctly that our universe is one system of definite construction. It 
undoubtedly consists of a ring or spiral of stars, star-dust and star-clusters. 
About the centre of this ring our sun is situated, in a comparatively 
sparsely-spread region. If we suppose a line to pass through our system, 
at right-angles to the plane of the galaxy, it passes in each direction 
through a region of thousands of nebule—these nebular masses being, as 
it were, polar caps covering approximately one-sixth the celestial sphere. 
It is certain that such an arrangement is absolutely incompatible with a 
chance distribution, and that consequently it offers a perfectly legitimate 
ground for scientific induction. In offering this hypothesis I do so with 
the more confidence as it is probable that every wide generalization tends 
to give direction to much successful research, the results of which are of 
great value, although some of these may convert the hypothesis into mere 
scaffolding, to be removed when the structure is complete. I shall asswme 
the existence of large bodies without discussion, as such discussion is 
antecedent to the especial purpose of this paper, and besides, would unduly 
increase its length, which is too great already. I propose to discuss their 
claim on your consideration in a future paper. I will, however, call your 
attention to the present views of mathematical physicists, which point to 
the final state of the universe being one gigantic body, with all the energy 
dissipated as uniformly diffused heat. If, therefore, we may look forward 
to such a body in the future, why not in the past? I will not, however, 
