178 Benjamin Peirce. 
the sun, another portion directly from the impact of meteors 
with the earth’s atmosphere. The two portions, he afterwards 
shows, are equal. 
These views are developed more fully in his “ Lectures,” re- 
cently published. The meteors, as Professor Peirce believed, 
come from the outer portions of the condensing solar nebula. 
In the course of development an outer shell was left, which fur- 
nished the matter to be collected in small masses. The small- 
est become meteors, the larger comets. eir numbers are 
enormously great. Arranged according to perihelion distances, 
of the sun varies directly as the distance. The heat of Jupiter 
and Saturn comes from the collisions with those planets. The 
interior of the earth may be liquid throughout, and the limits set 
to the lengths of the geologic ages may reasonably be greatly 
extended. 
Any attempt to outline the history of the solar system is 
sure to lead, in the present state of knowledge, into serious 
difficulties. Necessarily the problems that arise do not, in 
many cases, admit of quantitative analysis. The number of 
unknown elements that appear with every new hypothesis 
is large; and the more we learn, os larger the number of 
questions which we cannot answer. will be but natural if 
some of the theses of Professor Peirce shall be questioned, and 
even be proved unsound; but scholars who shall be led into this 
fascinating field of study will always find in them profound and 
most suggestive views of creation. Some of these theses will 
undou pi gene 9 found to be the true and previously unknown 
laws of natu 
Professor Paes was always AEDy interested in everything 
that promoted science in this coun try. He was generous In his 
estimate of merit, especially of merit in young men. He was 
one of the founders of the National teas of Sciences, 
e 
bers of this Academy, and was a frequent recipient of academic 
honors. American science mourns in his death the loss it 
cannot express, but has a higher life for his having lived, 
A. N. 
