The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-07
THEORY Of SOLAR SYSTEM
NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS is COM
Rated BY PROF. CHAMBER
LAIN, OF CHICAGO
HAS ENDURED FOR A CENTURY
And Has Furnished Argument for
Dcists and Atheists Alike
Photographs of Spiral
NebuIRe.

Chicago enterprise is trying to put the
nebular theory, which has withstood tie
onslaught of science for decades, in the
shade, and will succeed if the views Of
Prof. t. c. Chamberlain, of the Gnivers.-
Philadelphia Times The investlga ton
which he has recently conducted and the
deductions which he has drawn seem to
presage its acceptance. The views he ad-
vances are intensely interesting. and are
explained by DR.. Chamberlain thus:
The general result of our inquiry is
to show, if we have not somehow fallen
into error, various relationships of mass
and momentum which are seemingly alto
gether incompatible with an evolution
of the solar system from gaseous sphe-
roid controlled by the laws of nydrodyn-
annie equilibrium and developing by see
ular cooling. The argument is equally
cogent against an evolution from a me-
teoroidal spheroid controlled by the laws
of connective equilibrium.
THE results point to an unsymmetrical
distribution of matter and of mo aIentum
sumo nebular origin in the broad sense
show that the original form of the nebu-
la and the mode of its development are
to be sought along new lines.
THE data which we have put together
on masses and momenta seem 10 cOnst-
tute criteria of rather rigorous nature
to which a working hypothesis must con
form. They are thereby aids in the CON
struction of the Laplacian theory.
They seem to require the assignments
of some mode of origin by which the peri
pheral (Outer) portion of the system
acquired all but a trivial part of tbs
moment or momentum while it posse ssud
trivial part of the mass.
The first suggestion or these concur
sions was the possible formation of the
system of the collision of a small nebula
upon The outer POI ton of a large one the
smaller one having necessarily a high
ratio of momentum to mass, whine the
larger one may have had little or no o.
tary momentum, or even an adverse ro-
tation The low degree of clipticity of
the present orbits seem to present grave
difficulties in the framing of a consistent
hypothesis of origin along this line, but
these may not prove insuperable
The results also naturally turn thought
anew toward existing nebula for an ex-
empitficatiOn of the evolution IF 1ha solar
system. 1t is not little significant that
OF the thousands of nebula row known
no one, believe, Closely rep: esents the
annular Chat is, the r1ng) process: GER
talnly none represents the secondary an
mutation coincident with the primary. To
bring the current hypothesis into con-
SlStency with observed nebular states it
seems necessary to assign it to so late
a stage OF concentration and to such small
dimensions as to be beyond observations
at most, a hypothetical resort q
SPIRAL NEBULAE.
But DR.. Chamberlain believes valuable
observations can be made today He
says: Following a purely naturaIistic
and 1nductive method, 1t would seem that
the spiral nebulae, whose abundance Is
attested by the recent notable success of
Prof. Keller in photographing numerous
small ones, offer the greatest inherent
presumption of being the ancestral form.
While present knowledge of their dynam-
les is almost inappreciable, the SUCCESS
tons of their forms and the distribu-
ton Of their matter do not seem neces-
Sarily incompatible with the Criteria de-
duced in our inquiry
1t will not surprise the professors at
the University of Chicago and the friends
and admirers of Prof Chamberlain and
Dr. Ira Moulton if they develop thorough
ly theory which may take the place of
the Laplacian
The nebular hypothesis has been a COM
mon belief for century and is regarded
by people In general and scientists as
one OF the fundamental laws of all sci
ence. This theory is as well known and
mas been believed ALMOST as much as
NeWton's law of gravitation.
Deists firm in their belief that God Gre
10
as detailed account of the wav in which
He did it. Atheists, scorning the idea of
a creating deity, have regarded the neh1-
lar hypothesis as logical theory of cos
system. "a 1iie
Evolutionists find that the nebular nv
pothesis not only fits into their system.
put is strong foundation for it. And
nhally, scientists, astronomers who Spend
thelr nights peering at the heavens
lieve in it.