SCIENCE. 



239 



earth's mass. Each pound of the earth's mass reacts 

 with an equal vigor of attraction upon the body. We 

 must add all these separate attractions together to get 

 the whole sum of attraction in either case, and these 

 whole sums are necessarily equal. The body, therefore, 

 attracts the earth with as much vigor as the earth at- 

 tracts the body, and necessarily, therefore, they must 

 aporoach each other with equal energy. Of course not 

 with equal speed. Under the above supposition their re- 

 spective weights were as a million to one, and a million 

 pounds falling one inch would be equivalant to one pound 

 falling a million inches. Their acceleration in speed 

 must likewise, in both earth and body, obey the law of 

 gravitative acceleration. 



It is well, therefore, to bear strictly in mind, that in 

 gravitation, as in every other form of force, action and re- 

 action are always equal and opposite.* 



Charles Morris. 



2223 Spring Garden street, Philadelphia. 



PRIMEVAL ROTATION AND COSMICAL RINGS. 

 II. 



To the Editor of " SCIENCE ": — 



Prof. A. Winchell, recounting the history of formation 

 of the solar system from a sphere of incandescent gas, 

 says : " The cooling and contraction of this vapor in- 

 augurated a rotation." 1 



Matter is governed by law, hence the ball of gas must 

 have obeyed laws governing gases. Men have detected 

 several laws of nature, while doubtless there are others 

 eluding research. The globe of gas was dominated by 

 known or unknown laws ; if by unknown, no scheme of 

 planetary evolution can be outlined ; by known, hypothe- 

 ses are tested by their application. There exists a doc- 

 trine, the Nebular Hypothesis, and we take it for granted 

 that its advocates conceive the gaseous sphere to have 

 been wrought by known laws. 



But no law of nature yet discovered is able to cause a 

 sphere of gas to rotate. 



Contracting by cooling did not begin rotation, for, by 

 dynamic laws, the mass was not hot, but cold. If hot, 

 contracting would not cause rotary motion, but would 

 give rise to two motions, centripetal and peripheral, both 

 radial instead of circular. The heaviest atoms, gravitat- 

 ing towards the centre, would displace the lightest to- 

 wards the circumference. 



Repulsion did not exist ; this force can only obtain in 

 matter not dissociated. Repulsion causes dissociation 

 and vanishes, gravity reasserting dominion. Hence, re- 

 pulsion is more ancient than that gravity which caused 

 the mass to develop a solar system ; else the first state 

 of matter was in dissociation. 



These things are unknowable ; therefore, with adher- 

 ents of the hypothesis, we dismiss repulsion, leaving the 

 mass subject to no known energy but gravity. If repul- 

 sion did act it could not cause rotation. Gravity could 

 never cause the ball to turn ; it would bring every atom 

 to a rest. The whole mass would arrange itself in con- 

 centric strata, whose distance from the centre would de- 

 pend on specific gravity. Calm would ensue unless pres- 

 sure was sufficient to force atoms within range of chem 

 ism. Chemical reaction would have no power to start 

 axial revolution. It would evolve heat, repulsion and 

 temporary expansion, which, waning, would leave the 

 mass smaller through combination, no sign of rotary mo- 

 tion having appeared. The mass extended half way 

 to a Centauri, it being equal in mass to the sun. Helm- 

 holtz has shown that if the matter in the solar system 

 expanded to Neptune, "it would require several cubic 

 miles to weigh a single grain." 2 But the same matter 



*In my previous article, above referred to, there is a typograph- 

 ical error, which slightly confuses the meaning. On page 167, 

 line 49, the phrase " this force is increasing," should read, "this 

 force is unceasing." 



filled a sphere whose radii were half the distance of the 

 stars in length. Estimation of its tenuity indicates that 

 a space as large as the moon only contained a grain. Yet 

 it was "intensely heated. ' 3 It is not known how many 

 atoms make a grain ; counting them by the million, they 

 were yards apart, in frigid voids — hot ! Obeying gravity, 

 they descended with slowest conceivable motion ; at no 

 point in their fall displaying tendency to move in arcs of 

 circles at right angles to their radial movement, which 

 they must do to begin rotation in the cosmic sphere. In 

 the present state of knowledge, judging from laws at 

 work in the Universe, it can be safely asserted that the 

 ball had no rotary motion. Ignoring these considera- 

 tions, we will assume with Winchell that it was in revol- 

 ution. 



" The cooling and contraction of this vapor inaugu- 

 rated a rotation which was inevitably accelerated to such 

 an extent that a peripheral ring was detached which be- 

 came a planet. The same process continued and other 

 rings were detached which became other planets in due 

 succession. Similarly, the planetary masses detached 

 rings which became their satellites." 4 



Conceiving the mass to have cut loose from 61 Cygni 

 and other cosmic masses ; admitting cooling, contrac- 

 tion and acceleration, then the sphere would be unable 

 to cast off by any law of nature hitherto discovered, the 

 least particle, to say nothing of a massive ring. The 

 ball had dwindled to the orbit of Neptune, acquiring 

 such volocity as to no longer remain intact, so it cast off 

 equatorial matter enough to form that planet. 



The rate of motion on the equator was only 3.36 miles 

 a second ; and a vacuum as made by Crookes is as a solid 

 compared with the density of the ring; yet Neptune's 

 mass is nearly 102 sextillions of tons 5 . The material, 

 being exterior, was of the lowest specific gravity of any in 

 the mass ; thence its volume was enormous ; so great as 

 not to be peripheral. The word periphery alludes to the 

 surface, and Winchell says the ring was peripheral. It 

 was not,— it was formed of gas torn up from a depth of 

 hundreds of millions of miles, in order to secure sub- 

 stance sufficient to form Neptune. If not, — the mass 

 was piled above the level of the equator, an impossi- 

 bility, as gravity would bring it down. As soon as force 

 raised a line of atoms above the equatorial level, around 

 the ball, the next line of atoms below would ascend, 

 then the next, and so on. The poles would depress caus- 

 ing the mass to assume lenticular form. This would 

 retard rotation, allowing central attraction to regain con- 

 trol, bringing the mass to a sphere as in the beginning. 

 This oscillation must take place so long as the mass re- 

 mained a gas. Should it become fluid, then the alterna- 

 tions would be between a sphere and spheroid, and the 

 mutation would obtain until solidification sets in. No 

 atom at any period had power to overcome gravity, the 

 stability of the mass being assured by inhering laws. 

 The mass of the solar system, the mass of any planet, 

 the direction and velocity of the planet's original motion, 

 determine what orbit it shall traverse. 



The orbit of Neptune is determined ; it makes regular 

 revolutions, hence the centre of the assumed ring that 

 formed it, when abandoned coincided with the present 

 track of the planet's centre. Therefore the ring was not 

 detached when the mass was lenticular, for its edge then 

 extended far beyond where Neptune now revolves ; if it had 

 been the planet would now describe our orbit much 

 farther from the sun. 



The mass reached the present path of Neptune when 

 spherical, and that world was thrown off where it now 

 makes circuit, the mass being a sphere when it parted 

 with its first riDg. 



1 Geology of the Stars, p. 260. 

 ' 2 Yourr.an'slCorrel. and;Con. Forces, p. 231. 

 3 Geo!ogy of the Stars,"p.'279. 

 4 Geology of the Stars," p. 279. 

 'Chambers' Astronomy, p. 898. 



