125 
PROCEEDINGS 
OF 
THE LITEEAEY AND PHILOSOPHICAL 
SOCIETY. 
SESSION 1863—1864. 
PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SECTION. 
April 80th, 1863. 
Joseph Baxendell, F.B.A.S., President of the Section, 
in the Chair. 
A Paper was read by Mr. Thomas Carrick, On the 
Wave of High Water, with Hints towards a New Theory of 
the Tides.” 
The Author, starting from a new hypothesis on the 
relations of terrestrial matter to cosmical force, has arrived 
at the conclusion that the tidal motions of ocean surfaces 
are caused by a differential action of force centering on land 
areas. The nature of this hypothesis, and its relation to 
those motions, were briefly illustrated from the point of 
view of an assumed nebulous origin of the solar system. 
The Author nevertheless declined to endorse the received 
“ nebular hypothesis” as a genetic theory, and adopted its 
ideas and phraseology in his Paper solely from considerations 
of brevity in this incidental portion of his subject. 
Assuming the existence of a diffused nebula, composed of 
ultimate atoms of matter, each having a normal rotation on a 
fixed axis in a uniform direction, and with simple forces of 
attraction and repulsion arising thereout, then, from causes 
arising out of diverse molecular groupings of these atoms and 
their poles, the nebulous matter in condensing upon a centre 
might take up three successive states, constituting the normal 
types of the solid, liquid, and gaseous states of terrestrial 
Proceedings— Lit. & Phil. Society — No. 1 — Session, 1863 — 1864. 
