The Complete Essays by Herbert Spencer (Vol. 1-3). Spencer Herbert

proof afforded by Mr. Lynn that my calculation contained a wrong factor, disposes of the difficulty—nay, changes the objection to a verification. It turns out that, according to the hypothesis, Mars ought to have satellites; and, further, that he ought to have a number intermediate between 1 and 4.

[19] Since this paragraph was first published, the discovery that Mars has two satellites revolving round him in periods shorter than that of his rotation, has shown that the implication on which Laplace here insists is general only, and not absolute. Were it a necessary assumption that all parts of a concentrating nebulous spheroid revolve with the same angular velocities, the exception would appear an inexplicable one; but if, as suggested in a preceding section, it is inferable from the process of formation of a nebulous spheroid, that its outer strata will move round the general axis with higher angular velocities than the inner ones, there follows a possible interpretation. Though, during the earlier stages of concentration, while the nebulous matter, and especially its peripheral portions, are very rare, the effects of fluid-friction will be too small to change greatly such differences of angular velocities as exist; yet, when concentration has reached its last stages, and the matter is passing from the gaseous into the liquid and solid states, and when also the convection-currents have become common to the whole mass (which they probably at first are not), the angular velocity of the peripheral portion will gradually be assimilated to that of the interior; and it becomes comprehensible that in the case of Mars the peripheral portion, more and more dragged back by the internal mass, lost part of its velocity during the interval between the formation of the innermost satellite and the arrival at the final form.

[20] I was about to suppress part of the above paragraph, written before the science of solar physics had taken shape, because of certain physical difficulties which stand in the way of its argument, when, on looking into recent astronomical works, I found that the hypothesis it sets forth respecting the Sun's structure has kinships to the several hypotheses since set forth by Zöllner, Faye, and Young. I have therefore decided to let it stand as it originally did.

      The contemplated partial suppression just named, was prompted by recognition of the truth that to effect mechanical stability the gaseous interior of the Sun must have a density at least equal to that of the molten shell (greater, indeed, at the centre); and this seems to imply a specific gravity higher than that which he possesses. It may, indeed, be that the unknown elements which spectrum analysis shows to exist in the Sun, are metals of very low specific gravities, and that, existing in large proportion with other of the lighter metals, they may form a molten shell not denser than is implied by the facts. But this can be regarded as nothing more than a possibility.

      No need, however, has arisen for either relinquishing or holding but loosely the associated conclusions respecting the constitution of the photosphere and its envelope. Widely speculative as seemed these suggested corollaries from the Nebular Hypothesis when set forth in 1858, and quite at variance with the beliefs then current, they proved to be not ill-founded. At the close of 1859, there came the discoveries of Kirchhoff, proving the existence of various metallic vapours in the Sun's atmosphere.

      ADDENDA.

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      Speculative as is much of the foregoing essay, it appears undesirable to include in it anything still more speculative. For this reason I have decided to set forth separately some views concerning the genesis of the so-called elements during nebular condensation, and concerning the accompanying physical effects. At the same time it has seemed best to detach from the essay some of the more debatable conclusions originally contained in it; so that its general argument may not be needlessly implicated with them. These new portions, together with the old portions which re-appear more or less modified, I here append in a series of notes.

      Note I. For the belief that the so-called elements are compound there are both special reasons and general reasons. Among the special may be named the parallelism between allotropy and isomerism; the numerous lines in the spectrum of each element; and the cyclical law of Newlands and Mendeljeff. Of the more general reasons, which, as distinguished from these chemical or chemico-physical ones, may fitly be called cosmical, the following are the chief.

      The general law of evolution, if it does not actually involve the conclusion that the so-called elements are compounds, yet affords a priori ground for suspecting that they are such. The implication is that, while the matter composing the Solar System has progressed physically from that relatively-homogeneous state which it had as a nebula to that relatively-heterogeneous state presented by Sun, planets, and satellites, it has also progressed chemically, from the relatively-homogeneous state in which it was composed of one or a few types of matter, to that relatively-heterogeneous state in which it is composed of many types of matter very diverse in their properties. This deduction from the law which holds throughout the cosmos as now known to us, would have much weight even were it unsupported by induction; but a survey of chemical phenomena at large discloses several groups of inductive evidences supporting it.

      The first is that since the cooling of the Earth reached an advanced stage, the components of its crust have been ever increasing in heterogeneity. When the so-called elements, originally existing in a dissociated state, united into oxides, acids, and other binary compounds, the total number of different substances was immensely augmented, the new substances were more complex than the old, and their properties were more varied. That is, the assemblage became more heterogeneous in its kinds, in the composition of each kind, and in the range of chemical characters. When, at a later period, there arose salts and other compounds of similar degrees of complexity, there was again an increase of heterogeneity, alike in the aggregate and in its members. And when, still later, matters classed as organic became possible, the multiformity was yet further augmented in kindred ways. If, then, chemical evolution, so far as we can trace it, has been from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, may we not fairly suppose that it has been so from the beginning? If, from late stages in the Earth's history, we run back, and find the lines of chemical evolution continually converging, until they bring us to bodies which we cannot decompose, may we not suspect that, could we run back these lines still further, we should come to still decreasing heterogeneity in the number and nature of the substances, until we reached something like homogeneity?

      A parallel argument may be derived from consideration of the affinities and stabilities of chemical compounds. Beginning with the complex nitrogenous bodies out of which living things are formed, and which, in the history of the Earth, are the most modern, at the same time that they are the most heterogeneous, we see that the affinities and stabilities of these are extremely small. Their molecules do not enter bodily into union with those of other substances so as to form more complex compounds still, and their components often fail to hold together under ordinary conditions. A stage lower in degree of composition we come to the vast assemblage of oxy-hydro-carbons, numbers of which show many and decided affinities, and are stable at common temperatures. Passing to the inorganic group, we are shown by the salts &c. strong affinities between their components and unions which are, in many cases, not very easily broken. And then when we come to the oxides, acids, and other binary compounds, we see that in many cases the elements of which they are formed, when brought into the presence of one another under favourable conditions, unite with violence; and that many of their unions cannot be dissolved by heat alone. If, then, as we go back from the most modern and most complex substances to the most ancient and simplest substances, we see, on the average, a great increase in affinity and stability, it results that if the same law holds with the simplest substances known to us, the components of these, if they are compound, may be assumed to have united with affinities far more intense than any we have experience of, and to cling together with tenacities far exceeding the tenacities with which chemistry acquaints us. Hence the existence of a class of substances which are undecomposable and therefore seem simple, appears to be an implication; and the corollary is that these were formed during early stages of terrestrial concentration, under conditions of heat and pressure which we cannot now parallel.