The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-08-31
LUNA is OLD.
Prof. Darwin Figures Her Age at a
Billion Years.


meeting just held here on the subject
of Celestial evolution"
Professor Darwin said the German as
tronofner Rode long ago propounded
| simple empirical law concerning the
distance at which the several planets
move about the sun, and his formula
embraced so large a number of cases
with accuracy that they were compelled
| to believe that it arose in some manner
from the primitive conditions OF the
planetary system. There were certain
perpetual orbits in which meteerle
stone or minor planet might move for
ever without collision. But when such
an immortal career had been discovered
for our minor planet it still remained
to discover whether the slightest posi-
bit departure from the prescribed orbit
would become greater and greater, ana
ultimately lead to a collision with the
sun or Jove, or whether the body would
| travel so as to cross and recross the
exact perpetual orbit, always remain
| ing close to it. If the slightest depart
ure inevitably increased as time went
on, the orbit was unstable; if, on the
other hand, it only led to a slight WaV-
| mess in the path described, 1t was
stable. They thus arrived at another
distinction. There were perpetual Or
bits, but some, and, indeed, most, were
unstable, and these did not offer an
| immortal career for a meteeric stone;
| and there were other perpetual ORBITS
| which were stable or persistent. The
cumbed in the struggle for life, and the
stable ones were the species adapted
| to their environment. There was hardly
room for doubt that if a complete Soiu-
| ton for our solar system were attain
able we should find that the orbits of
the existing planets and satellites were
numbered among the stable perpetual
orbits.
celebrated Nebular Hypothesis, first
suggested by Kant and later restated
| independently by the French mathe-
matician, LapIace, Professor Darwin
sketched the evolution of rotating IL
| guild planet like the earth. which was
the first stable species of our family,
and dealt with the influences of tidal
oscillations. In the retrospect both day
and month were found continuously
shortening The system might be trac-
ed back to a time when the day and
month were identical in length, and were
both only about four or five of our pres
ent hours. The identity of the day ana
month meant that the moon was always
opposite to the same side of the earth;
thus at the beginning the earth always
presented the same face to the moon,
lust as the moon now always shows the
same face to US. Moreover, when the
month was only some four or five of our
present hours in length, the moon must
have been only few thousand miles
from the earth's surface-a great con-
trast with the present distance OF z4V'ooo
this conclusion alone that the moon
separated from the earth more or less
as a single portion OF matter At tule
Immediately antecedent TO the lhiliaI
stage to which she had been traced.
But there was yet more we1ghty ar
gument favorable to this view, Tor II ap-
peared that the initial stage was one IN
which the stability Of the species OF mo
ton was lettering; so that the system
presented the characteristics of
transitional form, which would denote a
change of type or species.
Discussing the time occupied by the
sequence of evolutionary events
sketched Prof. Darwin said that if at
every moment since the birth of the
moon tidal friction hal always been
at work in such way rs to produce
the greatest possible effect, we should
find that sixty million years would be
consumed in this portion of evolu-
tionary history. The true period must
be much greater, and 1t did not seem
unreasonable to suppose thtt 500 to
l. 900 million years might have elapsed
since the birth of the moea. Such an
estimate would not seem extravagant
to biologists. Pure geology pointed to
some period between so 2nd 1000
million years, the upper limit being
more doubtful than the lower Thus
they did not find anything which rem
dered the tidal theory of evolution
untenable. Dealing with the different
estimates of the physicists and the
BIOLOGISTS, HrOI- Darwin SdlQ lI1dl
from a calculation of the suns total
output of heat it seemed to be imper-
atively necessary that the whole his
tory of the solar system should be
comprised within some 20 millions OF
wears For the last forty years the
physicists had been accustomed to tell
the biologists that they must moder-
ate their claims, but for himself he
had always believed that the geolo-
gfsts were more nearly correct. And
| OF 9th Tnlinf To
strained relations between the two
parties, for the recent mavelous dis
coveries in physics showed that con-
centration of matter was not the only
source from which the sun might
draw its heat. Radium was sub
stance which was perhaps millions of
times more powerful than dynamite.
Thus it was estimated that an ounce
power to raise 10000 tons mile
above the earth's surface. Another
way of. stating the same estimate was
that the energy needed to tow ship
of $4,000 tons a distance of 5000 sea
miles at Is knots was contained in %
| ounces of radium. The Saxon prob
ably burned five or six thousand tons
of coal on a voyage of Approximately
| the same length.
tains radioactive materials, and it was
safe to assume that it forms in some
degree a sample of the materials of the
solar system; hence it was almost GER
| tain that the sun is radioactive also.
/ This branch of science was yet in Its
| Infancy, but they already saw how I'M
safe it was to dogmatise on the poten-
tialities of matter. 1t appeared, then,
| that the physical argument was not
susceptible of a greater degree of GER
Itaintv than that of the biologists, and
1.-THE scale of geological time remained
| in great measure unknown. Passing
| on to the wider fields of the stellar
universe, Professor Darwin referred to
| the inconceivably vast multitude of
| stars and nebulae revealed by photog
IA ply. A celestial photograph, he
said, locked at first like a dark sheet
| of paper spIashed with whitewash, but
| further examination showed that there
was method in the arrangement of the