The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1891-12-03
THE SOLAR SYSTEM.


What Preceded thu Nebu10us States Our
LtsnItcd Knowledge.
Wa have before rs in the sun and
planets obviously not haphazard ag-
gregation Of bodies. but q system rest
ing upon multitude of relations point
ing to common physical cause, says
Dr. William Higgins. in his recent
presidential address before the British
Association for the Advancement Of
Science.
From these considerations Kant and
Laplace formulated the nebular hy-
pothesis, resting it on gravitation
alone, for at that time the science Of
the conservation of energy was prac-
tically unknown. These philosophers
showed how. on the supposition- that
the space now occupied by the solar
system was once filed by q vaporous
mass, the formation OF the sun and
planets could be reasonably accounted
for.
By totally different5methodo of rear
soning modern science traces the solar
system backward. step by step, to
similar state of things at the begin
ming. According to Helmholtz. the
suns heat is maintained by the con-
traction of its mass at the rate of about
two hundred and twenty feet year
Whether at the present time the sun is
getting he tier or colder, we do not GER
tainly know. We can reason back to
the time when the sun was sufficiently
expanded to fill the whole space Occur
pied by the solar system, and was re-
duced to a great glowing nebula-
Though mans life, the life of the race,
perhaps is too short to give us direct
evidence Of any distinct stages of so
august a process, still the probability
is great that the nebular hypothesis,
especially in the more precise form
given to it by Roche, does represent
broadly, notwithstanding some difficult
ties, the succession of events through
which the sun and planets have passed.
The oldeView of the original matter
of the nebula, that it consisted of
fiery mist fell at once with the rise
of the science of thermodynamics. In
1854 Hclmholtz showed that the suppo-
sition of an originally fiery condition of
the nebulous stuff was unnecessary,
since in the mutual gravitation of
widely separated matter we have
store of potential energy sufficient to
generate the high temperature of the
sun and stars We can scarcely go
wrong in attributing the light of the
nebule to the conversion of the gravi-
rational energy of shrinkage into molec-
ular motion.
The irquisitiveness of the human
mind does not allow us to remain con-
tent with the Interpretation Of the
present state OF the cosmical masses,
but suggests the question: What was
the original state of things? How has
it come about that by the side of aging
worlds we have nebule in relatively
younger state? Have any of them re-
iceived their birth from dark suns,
which have collided into new life, and SO
belong to a second or later generation of
the heavenly bodies? During the short
historic period, indeed, there is no record
of such an event; still it would seem to
be only through the collision of dark
suns, of which the number must be in
creasing, that temporary reJuvenes-
cence of the heavens is possible, and by
such ebb:ngs and flowings of stellar life
that the inevitable end to which eyolu-
ton in its apparent uncompensated
progress is carrying us can, even for a
little, be delayed. We cannot refuse to
admit as possible such an origin for
nebul@
Since the time of Newton our knowl-
edge of the phenomena of nature has
wonderfully increased Init man asks
perhaps more earnestly now than in
his days: What is the ultimate reality
of the perceptions? Are they only the
pebbles of the beach with which we
have been playing? Does not the ocean
of ultimate reality and truth lie be-
yond?-Boston Herald.