WAVE OF HIGH WATER. 311 



up three successive states, constituting the normal types of 

 the solid_, liquid, and gaseous states of terrestrial bodies, the 

 solid matter forming a spherical nucleus everywhere covered 

 with a concentric layer of fluid, and this overlaid with a 

 gaseous envelope. A normal sphere, thus formed by the 

 aggregation of rotating atoms in three distinct states, would 

 acquire a motion of rotation of the mass on a determinate 

 axis by virtue of the retardation of atomic rotation con- 

 sequent upon molecular aggregation, and would also derive 

 a progressive orbit-motion from conditions arising thereout, 

 the direction of the rotation and orbit-motion of the sphere 

 being determined by the original direction of atomic rota- 

 tion in the diffused nebula. Our concern, however, at 

 present is not with the rotation and orbit -motion of the 

 mass, but with the local constitution of the condensed 

 normal sphere so acquiring those motions. In virtue of the 

 assumed laws of condensation, the three states of matter so 

 aggregated and superimposed in one sphere would be in 

 stable equilibrium at the respective surfaces of normal con- 

 tact — the solid with the liquid, the liquid with the gaseous, 

 and the gaseous with the uncondensed nebulous matter of 

 space. 



The organic difierences between the constitution of these 

 successive layers would have intimate analogy with the 

 like differences which now arise when heat, on passing 

 into a solid body, converts it first into a liquid and then 

 into a gas — the heat or force being mainly absorbed, or 

 becoming latent, in effecting structural molecular changes. 

 In like fashion, but in the inverse direction, a portion 

 of the repulsive force predominating in the primal nebula 

 would pass into the latent state on the condensation of a 

 portion of the nebulous matter into the gaseous form ; a 

 further portion would become latent in passing by another 

 abrupt step from the gaseous to the fluid form, and yet 

 another portion by a further change to the solid state. 



