IN FAVOR OF THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 27 
moons revolving about their progenitor. The plan¬ 
etoids were formed in the same way; being smaller, 
they may be only fragments of a ring. 
This is a brief statement of the nebular hypothe¬ 
sis. From the nature of the case there can be no 
direct proof, nor can it be verified by mathematics. 
While not all the phenomena of the solar system can 
be explained by it, it serves to explain so many that 
astronomers generally favor it. If it is not the true 
one, then science has no explanation for the origin of 
the solar system. 
EVIDENCES IN FAVOR OF THE NEBULAR 
HYPOTHESIS. 
I can not pass on without giving a few of the 
twenty-eight reasons in favor of this famous hypothe¬ 
sis. For, no matter how young the reader is, his 
active mind must enjoy a statement of them. 
1. All of the four hundred bodies of the solar 
system revolve about the sun in the same direction. 
2. They revolve in nearly the same plane. 3. They 
rotate on their axes in the same direction as the cen¬ 
tral body which produced them. If we notice the 
lumps of mud flying off from a revolving wagon- 
wheel, where gravity does not interfere, we shall 
observe three things: the lumps move forward with 
the tire, they begin to rotate in the same direction, 
and they move in nearly the same plane. Uranus 
and J^eptune are so far away that it is diflicult to de¬ 
termine their rotation. 4. The evidences which we 
observe on the earth show that it was once a highly 
