The Age of the Sun's Heat in Relation to Geological Evidence

Abstract

1. IT is an admitted fact that the age of the sun's heat will not harmonise with the evidence of geology, on the supposition that the heat was solely derived from the approach of matter under the action of gravity. Dr. James Croll, in dealing with, this question in a recent number of NATURE,¹ has suggested the existence of a previous proper motion in the colliding matter that formed the sun, whereby, in accordance with accepted physical principles, a store of heat adequate for any period might have been provided. However a difficulty is raised here by Dr. Croll, in the Philosophical Magazine (May, 1868), where this question is first dealt with, and as this difficulty would seem on examination not to be insurmountable, I venture to call attention to the subject here, more especially as attendant questions of interest would seem to attach to it.