Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1871-03-03
VOL. VI.

! tenance OF organic lie. No Newton
would have come into existence, to
discover the fundamental law of ce-
lestial mechanics; and the portions of
matter which now constitute the Ger
man armies before Paris might have
been peacefully whirling in space, a
million miles removed from the atoms
which now make up the starving pop
ulation of that unhappy town.
! In view of all these considerations
! the existence of the zone of asteroids,
between Mars and Jupiter, seems to
! furnish all argument in favor of the
| nebular hypothesis, even more power
| full than that which is furnished by
| the existence of Saturn's meteoric
| rings. Not only do we find the large
and small planets, both primary and
secondary, just where they ought to be
! found, on the hypothesis of the nebu-
! lar origin; but, just where the nebular
! hypothesis tells us to look for a zone of
uncOnsOlidated fragments, just there
we find such zone. When we add
! thai Mr.. Spencer has explained the
/ various deusities, the angular veloci-
| ties and the slight Orbital inclinatiOns
! of the planets upon the same theory /;
! that he has been led by it TO assign to
! the earth's nucleus characteristics,
which are alone adequate to explain
! the phenomena of volcanoes and Garth
quakes; and that, starting from the
same general premises, he was led in
1898 TO predict the existence i'm the solar
atmosphere of the very metals which
KirchOff found there three years later;
it becomes evident that the sO-called
nebular hypothesis is very well-sus-
tained induction, and before we aban-
don it we shall feel inclined to wait for
some more substantial objection than
/ the one gravely raised by Mr.. Proctor
that it assigns different ages to the
different planetsi As if there were
any reason, apart from the theory of
! planetary genesis which one happens
! to hold, for attributing to any par
/ ticular planet one rather than an
other!
! Indeed. the different antiquity of the
! different planets is one of the two inn
poriant differences for the sake of which
we have here explained and defended
the nebular hypothesis at such length.
The other important infereT &c relates
to the primitive physical condition of
each planet. According to the theory
here cxpOunded, each planet, at the
begi ming OF its independent career,
must have been simply huge spheroid
of vapur. Our earth, for instance,
must hav. more hun filled the
moons orbit; although il DOES not ne
cesSarily follow that its diameter must
have been more than four hundred and
eighty thousand miles for Sir W.
Thomson has shown that the moom'e
orbit was originally much smaller than
it is at prctrnt. Surprising that it had
at the outset 70 more than two-thirds
or threr-fnurths of this diameter, the
amount of heat required 10 sustain
such an expansion must nave been
enorIInIis. The eXiStence of diamonds,
proving the an lent iluidity of carbon
"A substance which remains sOlIi Un-
der the greatest heat that man ca, pro-
duCc-aiiUulS lis Il Ciu' whereby rudrly
to estimate the primitive heat OF the
earth. Such a heat must have been
sufficient IL preclude all possibility of
chemical combination; - that the
chief source of tcrreSt, ial diversity did
not exist. But with the lowering of
this nebulouS temperature 10y radia-
ton, chemical cOmbiIat on became
gradually possible. First appeared the
stable binary compounds, such az water
and the simple inorganic acids and
bases, which are capable of withstand
ing much higher temperatures than
the salts, double salts. and organic
acids and pther- Afterwards. aS the
cooling went Oh, some of these more
unstable compounds became possible.
The formation Of acids, bases, and
salts. and the gradual consolidation of
parts of the CA THIS periphery, prepared
the way for that meteorological and
geographical diversity which is an es-
genital prerequisite for the develop
ment of complex forms of life. At
last the temperature became low
enough to allow molecules of oxygen,
hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon 10
unite in sufficiently high multipleS to
form prOtOplasm. And then, it may
be, appeared the simplest forms of or
gale life, due to the now unhindered
working of the more complex chemi-
cal aflinities. However this may be,
il is quite certain that life could not
have originated atany earlier epoch i'll
the ea:th's history.
Now the nebulIr hypothesis Obliges
us To suppose that all the planets were
similarly at he outset great VapOrOus.
masses, which lave ever since bee n
cooling and contracting, like the earth.
1t assumes, moreover, that all the
planets, having successfully originated
from the same gaseous body, must be
composed of similar chemical ele-
mentS: and tn g assumption is uni
furmly cOrrobOrated by the results of
observation with the spectroscope.-
The inference is therefore inevitable,
! that the process through which the
earth has passed, has been, or will be,
under proper conditions, repeated to
| certain extent upon all the other PLAN
cts. Upon any planet the lomg-con-
/ tinued radiation of heat must, sooner
or later, bring about chemical combi-
nations, first in the shape of simple
/ binary compounds, afterwards i'm the
| shape of salts, and perhaps of ternary
and quaternary compounds. Upon
any planet there must, eventually, Oc-
| eur solicitation of the outer surface,
an extensive evaporation and precipi-
/ tation of water, an upheaval of noun
! tains, an excavation of river beds, and
! a deposit of alluvium. so far we may
go safely with our present scientific
resources 1t is possible that, at no
very distant day, we shall be able TO go
! farther, and, having ascertained the
conditions under which protOplastic
combinations arise upon our earth, to
assert that upon any planet of the re-
/ quisite size and rate of cooling, pro-
vided the four Organogens be presentin
sufficient proportions, pro- oplastic COM
binations must sooner or later arise
In this way only can we iathom the
mystery of life upon foreign globes
In. this way perhaps it will be faith
omed.
For the present, however, we must
content ourselves with IA humber. but
/ hardly less interesting, series of infer
ences. We have seen that upon all
planets the cooling process Is, IN It's
main outlines, the same: and we have
seen that the ages of the planets IN
crease rapidly as we go from Mercury
out To Neptune. Does it not follow,
then, that the planets are all in the diff
fereut stages OF development? And
does il not at first seem evident that
the outer planets are the furthest from
their primitive condition? Or, to use
] /. ., sal n..ftfa of Il