, ., 
| Recent contributions to Astro- Meteorology. 
tT 
7] But if the mutual distances are, as before determined, 100 miles, 
from the sun, the mutual distance of the bodies being 10,000 
miles, is 125,000,000 times the attraction which the group has 
or one of its particles. This latter force then may be safely 
neglected. The dissolution or deformation of the system mast, 
moreover, begin much farther away from the sun than the as- 
sumed position of the cosmic cloud, out even in the stellar spa- 
t can enter the solar system only as a parabolic current. 
_ Even if we suppose a group that is tolerably dense, approach- 
ing the sun, as, for instance, a comet without a nucleus, there is 
a certain limiting distance within which the differences of solar 
attraction tend to dissolve it. If such a group passes this limit, 
in its descent to perihelion, the members will be scattered, and 
the original formation will never be restored. We have thus a 
most singular effect of attractive force, namely, the dispersion 
of a system that lacks coherence. 3 
now a dense cloud of bodies is supposed to pass near one 
of the larger planets, its orbit will be changed, and may become 
one of short period, like those of certain comets. If, moreover, 
its perihelion distance is less than the distance at which solar 
r. Schiaparelli givesa summary of the consequences which 
Tesult from the preceding discussions in the following propo- 
Sitions, which establish the basis for a new theory of falling stars. 
_ local concentration of the celestial matter, in a manner a een 70 the 
crystallization of substances chemically dissolved in liquids. From what 
collected in systems of few members. The second is made up of large 
al A em 
