7°4 
A Theory as to the 'December, 
II. A THEORY AS TO THE ORIGIN OF THE 
SOLAR SYSTEM. 
By R. Lamont. 
S N the beginning “ the earth was without form and void,” 
or, in other words, there was matter but no motion. 
To this dead matter motion was given , when it imme- 
diately became as it were a thing of life; atom whirled 
round atom, and, as the outcome of the action of motion 
upon matter is attraction, atom clung to atom, and molecule 
rushed towards molecule, to form the nuclei of future worlds. 
Everywhere these nuclei went spinning round, forming vast 
whirlpools* in their efforts to gather up as much matter as 
their fellows, but, owing to difference of speed and proximity 
of material, all were not alike successful. There were some 
tiny masses furiously whirling away, in their vain endeavours 
to overtake their more bulky companions, who had already 
swept up everything within their reach, and were now 
striving to draw their little friends within their grasp, but, 
owing to these smaller masses being endowed with a rotary 
motion round their own axis, the only effeCt which the at- 
traction of the larger masses had on them was to convert 
part of their rotary motion into centrifugal force, which 
conversion had not only the effeCt of balancing the attrac- 
tion, but also of swinging the satellites into the same plane 
as their primaries. 
While this was going on among the comparatively smaller 
bodies, in our own system there was one huge mass which 
had already sucked all the surrounding matter within its 
mighty vortex, and was now seeking to bring these rival 
systems within its powerful influence ; but, as satellite was 
rolling round planet, and planet was spinning round on its 
axis, it had no longer to deal with the infinitely small parti- 
cles of which it had just been built up, but with masses 
composed of the same material and endowed with the same 
motion as the Sun himself. He tried to draw them in, but 
as his attraction diminished with distance, and as the bodies 
on which he was exerting his attractive power possessed 
considerable magnitude, the attraction was much greater on 
* See Spiral Nebula in Canes Venatici, 
