146 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



as it appeared in the columns of the 'Edinburgh Evening 

 Courant' of the 2d December last, and from several other 

 and similar evidence, it seems to be the following : — That 

 infinite space was originally sparsely filled with what the 

 eminent French astronomer Laplace called star-dust. How 

 this was the case, or how that dust acquired the requisite 

 intense initial heat, attraction, and other qualities ascribed to 

 it, neither Laplace nor Dr M'Bain has chosen to inform us." 

 The author then follows up with what he considers a " fair 

 and faithful sketch of what may be called the nebulo-geolo- 

 gical hypothesis of this Society and of the present day. The 

 author has thus united the two pieces under one name, as 

 he is, and has all along been, convinced they are, and ever 

 have been, virtually only different and mutually depending 

 portions of one great whole." The author asserts that the 

 nebular hypothesis was all along untenable on various 

 grounds, one of which was the immense lapse of ages it 

 required for performing its operations. Bat the strongest 

 of all grounds, in the opinion of the author, for rejecting the 

 nebular hypothesis, was that the Creator himself had plainly 

 announced in His Word that he had, at the first completion 

 of creation, framed all the merely physical universe sum- 

 marily and in its highest degree of perfection. " What 

 have been the findings of Science herself," asks the author, 

 " on this point ? A few years ago, as most of you are 

 aware (although some appear to wish to conceal the fact), 

 the Creator himself, as if resolved to rescue this part of his 

 handiwork from the aspersions of man, snatched, through 

 the instrumentality of the ' monster telescope/ every starry 

 orb from the condition of ignoble dust to which it had been 

 ground down and kept far too long, and restored it to its 

 primitive condition, again a glorious sun ! Of the late 

 nebular hypothesis, let it be said, quiescat in pace !" And 

 now, having performed his duty to that subject, let us give 

 a glance, says the author, at the still remaining member of 

 this indissoluble partnership. After some ingenious illus- 

 trations, the author says — " It is pleasant to find that how- 

 ever much the sentiments of this Society and those of the 

 author differ, in the meantime, on other points, there is one, 



