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Clinical Protocols…fin rev3:Clinical Protocols…fin rev3 30/10/07 10:35 Page 1

CLINICAL PROTOCOLS in
OBSTETRICS and
GYNECOLOGY

TURRENTINE
THIRD EDITION
JOHN E TURRENTINE
The first edition of Clinical Protocols in Obstetrics and Gynecology (published in
2000) quickly became known as ‘the tan book’ and was used as a definitive
reference by physicians and other health-care practitioners, residents, and students
alike. With the topics in simple alphabetical order, the layout made it easy to locate
solutions to everyday clinical problems and to ensure that everyone in an office or
hospital team worked consistently. Now enlarged, revised, and updated in a third THIRD EDITION CLINICAL PROTOCOLS in
OBSTETRICS and
edition, the book retains and enhances the straightforward layout, flow charts, and

OBSTETRICS and GYNECOLOGY

CLINICAL PROTOCOLS in
simple presentation of relevant statistics that made its previous editions an
international bestseller and includes some further illustrations also.
This up-to-date and authoritative Ob/Gyn compilation should help anyone pass
the ACOG written or Oral Board examinations and be invaluable for use as a quick-
reference while practicing Obstetrics and Gynecology.

FROM REVIEWS OF PREVIOUS EDITIONS:

GYNECOLOGY
A strong point of this edition is the wide range of topics that are covered. Not only
are all the subspecialties represented, but medically related topics, including
primary care medicine, are also included.
Fertility and Sterility

There is a lot of groundwork behind these seemingly simple rules… it certainly is a

valuable contribution to this particular category of medical literature… It will be of
use to specialists in hospitals and private practice, residents, students and the
nursing staff.
THIRD EDITION
Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

John E Turrentine MD DMin is Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
for the Medical College of Georgia and Director/Instructor for Dalton State
College for Surgical Technology, University of Georgia, USA.

ISBN 978-0-415-43996-1

www.informahealthcare.com 9 78041 5 43996 1

 CLINICAL PROTOCOLS
in
OBSTETRICS AND
GYNECOLOGY
 CLINICAL PROTOCOLS
in
OBSTETRICS AND
GYNECOLOGY
THIRD EDITION

John E Turrentine MD DMin

Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Medical College of Georgia

Director/Instructor
Dalton State College of Surgical Technology
University of Georgia

USA
© 2008 Informa UK Ltd

First published in the United Kingdom in 2008 by Informa Healthcare, Telephone House,
69-77 Paul Street, London EC2A 4LQ. Informa Healthcare is a trading division of Informa UK
Ltd. Registered Office: 37/41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH. Registered in England and
Wales number 1072954.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7017 5000

Fax: +44 (0)20 7017 6699
Website: www.informahealthcare.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or in accordance with the provisions
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of any licence permitting
limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London
W1P 0LP.

Although every effort has been made to ensure that all owners of copyright material have been
acknowledged in this publication, we would be glad to acknowledge in subsequent reprints or
editions any omissions brought to our attention.

Although every effort has been made to ensure that drug doses and other information are
presented accurately in this publication, the ultimate responsibility rests with the prescribing
physician. Neither the publishers nor the authors can be held responsible for errors or for any
consequences arising from the use of information ciontained herein. For detailed prescribing
information or instructions on the use of any product or procedure discussed herein, please
consult the prescribing information or instructional material issued by the manufacturer.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Data available on application

ISBN-10: 0 415 43996 5

ISBN-13: 978 0 415 43996 1

Distributed in North and South America by

Taylor & Francis
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Composition by Exeter Premedia Services Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, India

Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd
Contents

Foreword vii
Sidney L Sellers

About the author viii

Introduction ix

Notice to readers x

Obstetrics and gynecology A–Z 1

Appendix 411

List of abbreviations 427

v
Foreword

What a pleasure it would have been in ‘my day’ to have this type of book to utilize before taking
the Boards. Also, there were many times during my practice when I needed a fast refresher on
symptoms presented that were not commonplace for my practice. Regardless of the length or
the volume of any one doctor’s practice, there are always questions that demand confirmation
on one’s memory of those details. This book can easily fulfill each of those needs.
This is an excellent compilation of the up-to-date knowledge on almost any topic within
Obstetrics and Gynecology. It could be used for studying for medical school exams and written
and oral boards, for research on subjects that do not occur in a particular practice very often,
and for a complete and very user-friendly resource for any Obstetric and Gynecology library. It
would be particularly valuable within a residency program for rapid access to details of a certain
diagnosis. The book is organized in a simple, yet in-depth way to find the pertinent information
desired – topic, subjects within that topic – symptoms, diagnosis, treatments – and then the
details and statistics. Looking up a topic is as logical and easy as using a dictionary.
During the time that John and I practiced together, he was well-trained in surgery and
fully knowledgeable and enthusiastic about specifics and diagnostic details in the Obstetrics
and Gynecologic field, always researching the most up-to-date study results and protocols. He
taught medical field students at Dalton State College and did excellent, in-depth presentations
for various pharmaceutical companies. His expertise in diagnosing, surgery, research and
teaching provided an ideal basis for creating this excellent resource for Obstetrics and
Gynecology students, residents and physicians. It is a pleasure watching John use these
talents to benefit others who follow in the field.

Sidney L Sellers MD
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Dalton, GA, USA
Practiced 1957 – 2006 at the
Emory School of Medicine,
Atlanta, GA, USA

vii
About the Author

Dr John E Turrentine is a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology for the Medical
College of Georgia and Director/Instructor for the Dalton State College of Surgical Technology.
He is an avid lecturer and instructor for minimally invasive surgeries, especially in the area of
total laparoscopic hysterectomy, female urinary incontinent and prolapse procedures, and most
significantly is the innovator and expert on MIVH (minimally invasive vaginal hysterectomy).
Having been in Ob/Gyn practice for over 25 years, Dr Turrentine teaches other physicians how
to pass the ACOG Board Certifying Exams.
Dr Turrentine received his Medical Doctorate from the Medical College of Georgia and is
a Doctor of Ministry from the Trinity Theological Seminary. He is a Board Certified Diplomat
and Fellow of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He is an Ordained Minister
through FCF (Faith Christian Fellowship). He has served on multiple boards, including
chairmanship positions for the ACOG Satellite Symposium, Young Life, and the Appalachian
Women’s Enrichment Center for the Pregnancy Crisis Centers throughout North Carolina,
Tennessee, and North Georgia. He has been featured on MSNBC, PAX TV, MCG Alumni
Magazine, and other TV, Newspaper, and Magazines.
Dr Turrentine is recognized worldwide for his previous books, Clinical Protocols in
Obstetrics and Gynecology (The TAN Book) 1st and 2nd editions, Surgical Transcriptions in
Obstetrics and Gynecology and Surgical Transcriptions and Pearls in Obstetrics and
Gynecology.
Dr Turrentine’s primary love is his family. His family includes a supportive wife, a son in
medical school, another son in pre-law, a daughter studying for a horticultural degree, and
another daughter still at home. His other interests include teaching history, ethics, philosophy,
swimming, running, and hiking. He holds a private pilot certificate, including seaplane rating,
and is a current SSI and PADI Master Diver and Divemaster.

viii
Introduction

This book is the most up-to-date Ob/Gyn textbook compiled to help anyone both pass
the ACOG Written or Oral Board Examinations and also use as a reference while practicing
Ob/Gyn. It is in simple alphabetical order so it is easy to find solutions to everyday problems.
Every effort was made to list the main topics on the left-hand side of the page. The “meat” of
the matter or subject has been listed in the middle, including etiologies, symptoms, diagnoses,
and treatment modes. To the far right, whenever possible, answers to percentages or minutia
have been listed, so this book makes an excellent study guide.
The same and sometimes improved flow charts and pictures are included that made the
TAN book a best-selling medical textbook. These all make for a quick reference and study
guide. If you know this book, you WILL pass your certification exam. You will also practice
excellent Ob/Gyn.

ix
Notice to readers

Our knowledge in clinical sciences is constantly changing. As new information becomes

available, changes in treatment and in the use of drugs become necessary. The author and
publisher of this volume have taken care to make certain that the doses of drugs and schedules
of treatment are correct and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of
publication. The reader is advised to consult carefully the instruction and information material
included in the package insert of each drug or therapeutic agent before administration. This
advice is especially important when using new or infrequently used drugs.

x
ABORTIONS 1

ABDOMINAL PREGNANCY
Incidence is: 1/7000
Signs: amenorrhea, abdominal pain, poor response to oxytocin

ABDOMINAL SACRAL COLPOPEXY

See also Prolapse (POP)
Success rate 90%
Have these available in OR – sterile thumbtacks and/or bone wax
Complications – hemorrhage, enterocele, mesh erosion
Identify ureter, especially on right
Retract rectosigmoid colon laterally
Vascular plexus – on sacral periosteum BLEEDS
RETROPERITONEALIZE FASCIA LATA (or Mersilene, Marlex, etc.)
Use ‘straight-in’ sacral colpopexy kit with ‘Y’ sling graft by
American Medical (1 800 253-4267)
To see how this procedure is done, refer to Turrentine J. Surgical
Transcriptions and Pearls of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2nd edn.
London: Informa Healthcare, 2006.

ABDOMINAL WALL
Layers Skin
Subcutaneous fat
Camper’s fascia (superficial fascia)
Scarpa’s fascia (deep fascia)
Anterior rectus sheath (fascial muscle cover)
Preperitoneal fat
Peritoneum

ABORTIONS
Therapeutic Mifepristone (RU486) approved in the USA for voluntary termination of IUP
of up to 7 weeks (49 days from LMP)
Method
Day 1 Counseling, especially about 5% failure rate and possible need for
surgical intervention. Malformations if continued pregnancy after failure.
Patient to sign PATIENT AGREEMENT and/or CONSENT. Know or review
contraindications. Then, 600 mg (three tablets of 200 mg each) given as
single oral dose. This administration should be witnessed and done while
in office.
Day 3 Misoprostol 400 µg (two tablets of 200 µg each) given as single oral
dose (unless abortion has occurred and been documented by exam and
ultrasound). Patient usually given something for cramping
Day 14 Post-treatment follow-up (persistent or enlarging sac requires
surgery for removal)
Medical abortion (if RU486 not available) Misoprostol 800 µg
If uncertain about location give misoprostol 5 days after Mtx 1 mg/kg
Ectopic Mtx alone IUP Cytotec (misoprostol 800 µg) alone or Cytotec 800 µg
then mifepristone 600 mg (RU486) 36–48 h later or as described above
Misoprostol 400 µg every 6 h for ≤ 48 h appears to be an effective regimen
for second-trimester pregnancy termination, resulting in a shortened delivery
time. (Dickinson JE, Evans SF. Optimization of intravaginal misoprostol dosing
schedules in second-trimester pregnancy termination. Am J Obstet Gynecol
2002;186:470–4)
Surgical abortion (discouraged if < 6 weeks – increased risk of incomplete
evacuation, ectopic)
Difficulty with cannula? Use laminaria, Cytotec or rotation of tip of dilator
Labs – Rh p.r.n., Hct, pregnancy test, STD?, Paps
Anesthesia
(1) Give Lortab® 5 or Percocet® 5 AND Xanax® 0.5 mg p.o. 30 min prior
(2) Give Valium® 10 mg with lidocaine 20 mg IV through butterfly and
Nubain® 10 mg IV just prior to start of procedure
2 ABORTIONS

Paracervical 7, 9, 11, 1, 3, 5 o’clock or simply inject 6 cc of 1% lidocaine

at 5 and 7 o’clock
Local increases postabortal fever
General increases death, perforation, bleeding and aspiration
Diprivan® is all that is usually needed if patient desires sleep
Selection of cannula #8 for 8 weeks; straight for decreased pain, curved for
ante- or retroflexed uterus
Postop meds
RhoGAM < 12 weeks; MICRhoGAM (50 µg) > 12 weeks full dose
Doxycycline 100 mg p.o. b.i.d. for a few days postoperatively
Methergine® not needed unless > 10 weeks’ gestation
NSAIDs for postop discomfort

Types of abortion

Threatened abortion Bleeding, os closed

Inevitable abortion Bleeding, os open, no POC passed
Incomplete abortion Bleeding, os open, some POC visualized
Complete abortion Bleeding, os closed, all POC extruded
Missed abortion No viable fetus, no bleeding, no symptoms
Surgical evacuation of the uterus via D&C is not obligatory for first-trimester
missed abortion (Wood SL, Brain PH. Medical management of missed
abortion: a randomized clinical trial. Obstet Gynecol 2002;99:563–6)
Therapeutic abortion Elective termination
Septic abortion Any SAB or TAB with intrauterine infection
Usually due to clostridial sepsis
Presents with tachycardia and FEVER
Hematuria and shock develop rapidly
Dxn; H&P, cultures by endobiopsy or evacuation +++gm + rods on Gm stain.
Check serum pregnancy test
Rx:
(1) High dose ab – PCN
(2) Empty uterus – first-trimester vacuum
second-trimester D&E with US or use PGE
(3) Laparotomy p.r.n.
(4) Hysterectomy with BSO (if hemolysis or systemic)
(5) Hyperbaric oxygenation p.r.n.
(6) Supportive care – ICU – cardiovascular support to restore B/P treat
ARDS (ventilation if O2 < 90%)
Spontaneous abortion Clinically recognized 10–15%
Lost in first or early second trimester 15–20%
Lost prior to menses 50–75%
Likelihood of fetomaternal hemorrhage after spontaneous abortion 3–4%
Percent of spontaneous first-trimester abortions that show
chromosomal abnormalities 50–70%
Percent of spontaneous second-trimester abortions that show
chromosomal abnormalities 30%
Percent of stillbirths that show chromosomal abnormalities 3%
Autosomal trisomy is detected in abnormal abortuses 50–60%
Trisomy 16 is most common of autosomal trisomies
Turner’s (XO) is most common single entity detected 20–25%
Polyploid (usually triploid) 44%
Most likely cause of spontaneous abortions is embryonic
aneuploidy if prior to 6th week
Most likely cause of spontaneous abortions is lupus
anticoagulant syndrome if after 11th week
Rate of pregnancy loss after detecting a live embryo in the
first trimester is < 5%
Risk of subsequent pregnancy ending in a spontaneous or
spontaneous recurrent abortion:
No previous abortion 10.7%
One previous abortion 15.9%
ABORTIONS 3

Two previous abortions 25.1%

Three previous abortions 45%
Four previous abortions 54.3%
Overall 11.3%
What % of elective abortions are second-trimester abortions? 10%
What is the appropriate vacuum for evacuating an incomplete
abortion in the first trimester? 40 mmHg
To undertake an elective abortion at 10 menstrual weeks’
gestation, correct cannula size is 8 mm
What period of time does one have to give RhoGAM
immunoglobulin (RHIG) prophylaxis if not given within 72 h of
delivery or abortion? 28 days
Incidence of vaginal bleeding in first trimester 20%
Risk of miscarriage in patient with first-trimester bleeding 1/2 to 2/3
FHR per US – incidence of spontaneous abortion with
first-trimester bleeding is only 10%
US with no FHR is indicative of fetal demise if sac is > 1.2 cm
Risk of combined IUP and ectopic is 1/8000–1/30 000
RhoGAM < 12 weeks’ gestation MICRhoGAM® (50 µg)
> 12 weeks’ gestation Full dose RhoGAM®
Most likely organisms to cause postabortal endometritis
are Neisseria gonorrheae, Chlamydia and Streptococcus
Treat endometritis with doxycycline, ofloxacin and/or ceftriaxone

Habitual abortions

Causes Diagnosis Treatment

Immunologic APTT, lupus, VDRL, Heparin, ASA,
antiphos abs prednisone
Microbiologic Cervical and endometrial Tetracycline, emycin
cultures
Endocrinologic Endo Bx, TSH, prolactin, Clomid®, progesterone,
midcycle progesterone, thyroid, bromocriptine
BBT charting
Genetics Karyotype Genetic counseling, donor
insemination, IVF
Anatomic HSG, laparoscopy, Septum, cerclage,
hysteroscopy lyse synechia, myomectomy,
metroplasty, tuboplasty, IVF
Metabolic As indicated As indicated
Environmental Tobacco, EtOH abuse Eliminate consumption
or exposure

Common genetic causes of RPW

(recurrent pregnancy wastage)
Aneuploidy
Chromosomal translocation – most common structural abnormality
CPM (confined placental mosaics) 1–2%
Carriers of factors Leiden – increased risk of venous
thromboembolism
Anatomic anomalies of RPW
Unicornuate uterus – rate of spontaneous pregnancy loss is 51%
Uterine didelphys – rate of spontaneous pregnancy loss is 40%
Bicornuate uterus – rate of spontaneous pregnancy loss is 30%
Septate uterus – rate of spontaneous pregnancy loss is 65%
Resection of the septum results in the successful delivery rate of 86%
Asherman’s syndrome – pregnancy rates of untreated is 45%
Hysteroscopic resection of Asherman’s – rate of conception is 84%
4 ABORTIONS

Endocrine factors of RPW

Luteal phase defect
Uncontrolled diabetes
Thyroid disease
Hyperprolactinemia
Hyperandrogenemia
Immunologic factors of RPW
Autoimmunity Antiphospholipid antibodies – implicated in Increased platelets 10–16%
aggregation, decreased endogenous anticoagulant activity, increased
thrombosis and vasoconstriction resulting from immunoglobin binding
to both platelet and endothelial membrane phospholipid. Screen
patients with RPW by drawing – APTT, kaolin clotting time,
lupus anticoagulant and cardiolipin ab.
Treat with heparin and low-dose aspirin… pregnancy achieved in 70%
Alloimmunity Refers to all causes of pregnancy loss related to an abnormal
maternal immune response to antigens on placental or fetal tissues.
Suggested that couples with RPW have sharing of HLA (human
leukocyte antigens), a condition that would not allow the mother
to make blocking antibodies. Treatment – IV immune globulin ??

Partial birth abortion > 16 weeks – 5.5%

May be the best or most appropriate procedure to save the

life or preserve the health of the patient
Must have ALL four elements in sequence:
(1) Deliberate dilatation of cervix, usually > sequence of days
(2) Instrumental conversion of fetus to footling breech
(3) Breech extraction of body except the head, AND
(4) Partial evacuation of the intracranial contents of a living fetus
to effect vaginal delivery of a dead but otherwise intact fetus

Incomplete and/or recurrent abortion

< 12 weeks
H&H, WBC, Group & Rh
Fibrinogen and platelets
D&E
D/c 6–8 h postop if stable with minimal bleeding
F/u 2 weeks
13–28 weeks
Offer watchful expectancy at least x 3 weeks (> 4 weeks 25–40%
DIC) or PGE2; (D&E okay if experienced)
CBC, fibrinogen, platelets, Group & Rh
Type & screen
NPO night before
Repeat PGE2 q. 4 h
D5½ NS
Demerol® 25 mg IV q. 3 h p.r.n.
Phenergan® 25 mg IV q. 4 h or Zofran 8 mg subling p.r.n. nausea
6 h postop – H&H, fibrinogen level
If USS – d/c x 24 h – RTO in 2 weeks
> 28 weeks
CBC w/ platelets, Group and Rh, fibrinogen, Type & cross 2 units;
D5½
Pitocin® or Cytotec or with PGE2 prior to Pitocin
US q. h
Stillbirth protocol (photos, opportunity to view and hold)
Request autopsy
Hct & fibrinogen
If USS – d/c x 24 h – RTO x 2 weeks
Other documents randomly have
different content
fragmentary swaddling-bands, later, presumably, to be shaken off,
still adhere to many of them.
Planetary nebulæ have much more in common than irregular
nebulæ, and their minor varieties might, with some plausibility, be
associated with differences in relative age. They are marked chiefly
by the character of the nuclear star which, in nearly all such objects,
appears to act as the pivot of the surrounding vaporous structure.
The supposition lies close at hand that it is designed as a provision
for the nourishment of the star—that the star gains in mass and light
at the expense of the nebula, which it is eventually destined wholly
to absorb and supersede. On this view, planetaries like the green
glow-lamp at the pole of the ecliptic (N.G.C. 6,543) should be
regarded as the most advanced, while Webb's planetary in Cygnus
(N.G.C. 7,027) would exemplify an inchoate condition. In the former
the central star is of 9·6 magnitude, and sharply stellar; in the latter
it is double and diffuse,[85] perhaps a wide binary system in embryo.
The question is, however, still open as to the real nature of the
connection between planetaries and their central stars. The pabulum
theory is a promising conjecture; but no facts with which we are
acquainted stringently enforce it. Ideas on the subject will need
complete revision if the traces of spirality noted from time to time in
some of these peculiar objects prove to be of radical significance.
The oculi, distinctive of the 'Owl nebula' (N.G.C. 3,587), as originally
shown by the Parsonstown reflector, consisted of luminous traceries
coiled round two interior stars,[86] but the appearance was either
due to illusion, or became effaced by change, since the camera has
refused to endorse it as genuine. The 'helical' planetary in Draco[87]
is doubtless essentially a spiral conformation;[88] and Professor
Schaeberle, by means of exposures with a 13-inch reflector of 20
inches focus, has compelled, not only the Ring nebula in Lyra,[89]
but the Dumb-bell in Vulpecula, to betray the surprising secret of
their whorled structure. Both these nebulæ give a spectrum of bright
lines, and inventiveness is at a loss to devise means for building up
gaseous materials into edifices of strongly characterized architectural
forms. The materials, indeed, may not be wholly gaseous;[90] or we
possibly see (as Professor Darwin long ago suggested) merely
illuminated stream-lines of motion furrowing an obscure mass. But if
this be indeed so, there is the further question to be asked: What
direction does the motion take? Do the tides set inward or outward?
Our spontaneous impressions are all in favour of concentrative
tendencies. We cannot easily shake off centripetal prejudices. Our
lives are passed under a regimen of central attraction, and we
naturally incline to universalize our experience. Herschel's scheme of
sidereal evolution invites accordingly at first sight ready acceptance.
Stars seem as if they could not act otherwise than as foci of
condensation in nebulæ; the lucid stuff involving them must,
apparently, with the lapse of ages, settle down towards their
surfaces, and become absorbed into their substance. Such
processes, indeed, belong, unless counteracted by different modes
of action, to the inevitable order of nature; but these may, and
probably do, exist. From sundry quarters the conviction is pressed
upon us that cosmic bodies can drive out matter as well as draw it
in. Repulsive forces insist upon recognition, and their effects become
more palpable the more attentively they are considered. Under
certain conditions they get the better of gravity; and stars may
possibly, like cocoon-spinning insects, expend their organic energies
in weaving themselves faintly lucent envelopes, the products of
subtle and unaccountable activities.
The example of Nova Persei is fresh in every mind, but we make no
pretension to decide the controversy it raised. A dogmatic
pronouncement is unadvisable where the unknown elements of the
question obscure and outweigh those that are known. A less slippery
foundation for reasoning is afforded by the permanently visible spiral
nebulæ, and features charged with an emphatic meaning have been
revealed in them by photographic means.
Looking at the entire contents of the nebular heavens, we find the
spiral type very largely predominant. It claims more specimens, and
emerges more distinctly with each development of delineative power.
Its chief prevalence is among 'white' nebulæ, showing continuous
spectra.
They are vastly numerous. Gaseous nebulæ are reckoned by the
score, white nebulæ by tens of thousands. Moreover, they collect
near the poles of the Milky Way,[91] while the gaseous variety crowd
towards its plane, both branches of the family thus manifesting
galactic relationships, though of an opposite character. Now, these
facts of distribution have some bearing on the question of relative
age. There is, as already remarked, a consensus of opinion that
objects showing a marked preference for the Milky Way are in a
more primitive state than those withdrawn from it, and the inference
is supported by the circumstance that nebulæ situated in high
galactic latitudes shine with continuous light, those near the galactic
equator with vivid lines. Yet it would be rash to assume that any
individual nebula traverses these successive stages. The series
would be satisfactorily established only if we could point to a number
of intermediate instances, which seem to be almost wholly lacking.
We cannot trace in nebular as we can in stellar growth the insensible
gradations of progressive change. They are perhaps complicated in
nebulæ by influences of a different kind from those which have
gained the ascendancy in stars. Diffusive effects may in them be
more conspicuous than concentrative effects;[92] or a balance may
be temporarily struck between antagonistic tendencies.
Spiral conformation is the real crux of nebular cosmogony. The
conditions from which it arises are met with only in the sidereal
heavens, but are there widely prevalent. Though remote from our
experience, they are fundamental in the realms of space. If we could
define and comprehend them, we should be in a better position for
determining the cosmical status of nebulæ.
The choice is open between two rival theories of nebulous spirals.
The first is the more obvious, and readily falls in with admitted
mechanical principles. Sir Robert Ball has adopted and ingeniously
advocated this view.
A globular collection of promiscuously revolving particles inclines, if
left to itself, to flatten down into a disc. The reason is this: In a
system of the kind moment of momentum is invariable, while energy
constantly diminishes. To render the contrast intelligible we have
only to consider that moment of momentum is the algebraic sum of
all the products of mass and motion in the aggregation, reduced to,
or projected upon, its 'principal plane,' while energy is independent
of the varied directions of velocity. Collisions consequently involve no
diminution of moment of momentum, but combine with radiative
waste to produce a steady loss of energy. Inevitably, then, the
system will assume the form in which it possesses the minimum of
energy that is consistent with the maintenance of its original
momentum; and it is that of a disc extended in the principal plane.
Retrograde movements will by the time this shape is definitively
arrived at have become eliminated; the constituent particles circulate
unanimously in one direction; and Sir Robert Ball adds that their
circulation, owing to the more rapid rotation of the central mass, is
along spiral paths.[93] They would accordingly present the twisted
conformation so commonly observed in the heavens, and might even
include subordinate centres of attraction, fitted to ripen and
strengthen into a full-blown retinue of planets. Such are spiral
nebulæ regarded in their direct mechanical aspect. Spherical nebulæ
are their immediate progenitors; suns, with or without trains of
dependent worlds, their lineal descendants.
Let us, however, consult some autographic records and weigh
attentively what these peculiar objects tell us about themselves. We
see at once that their curving lines, far from being laid down at the
dictate of chance, follow a strictly defined plan. Spiral nebulæ are
not formed like watch-springs by the windings of a single thread.
They are always two-branched. From opposite extremities of an
elongated nucleus issue a pair of nebulous arms, which enfold it in
double convolutions. Their apparent superposition and
interlacements occasion, in the Lyra nebula, the noted effect of a
fringed and ruptured annulus, and it is of profound interest to
perceive that even in gaseous masses the same constructive rule
prevails as in the great Whirlpool in Canes Venatici.
Yet this circumstance is well-nigh irreconcilable with the hypothesis
that an influx of material is in progress.[94] Falls due to gravity could
not be limited to two narrow areas on the central body. Matter
ejected from it might, on the other hand, quite conceivably follow
this course. Interior strain could easily be supposed to cause yielding
along a given diameter, and nowhere else. Solar disturbances
partially and dimly illustrate such a kind of activity. Diametrically
opposite prominences are not unknown. They indicate the action of
an explosive force right across the solar globe. Similarly, the
formation of a spiral nebula cannot be rightly apprehended
otherwise than as the outcome of long-continued, oppositely-
directed eruptions.
The history of the heavens involves the law of spirality. The scope of
its dominion continually widens as research becomes intensified. The
Huygenian 'portent' in the Sword of Orion now figures as merely the
nucleus of the 'great winding Nebula' photographed by Professor W.
H. Pickering in 1889. That the vast nebulosity encompassing the
Pleiades is an analogous structure seems eminently probable,
though the brilliancy of the enclosed stellar group obliterates most
traces of its ground-plan. The magnitude of the mixed system, we
are told by Professor Barnard,[95] who detected it in 1893 by means
of a ten hours' exposure with the Willard lens, transcends our
powers of realization. It covers 100 square degrees of the sky with
intricate details. Again, some four minutes of arc to the north-west
of the Ring in Lyra lies a small nebula discovered visually by
Professor Barnard in 1893, and photographically resolved by Keeler
into a delicate spiral. It is a two-branched, left-handed spiral, as the
large adjacent object has also proved to be. One is, in fact, the
miniature of the other, and they are now shown, by Professor
Schaeberle's short-focus reflector, to be linked together by curving
folds of nebulosity into a compound spiral system. The Dumb-bell is
held, on the same authority, to be similarly conditioned, and the
analogy frequently noted between its aspect and that of the Ring
nebula has thus become incalculably widened in scale.
The galactic relations of the Magellanic Clouds are not easily defined.
They are within the Milky Way, yet not of it. Enigmatical
excrescences upon the universe, they suggest an origin from
gigantic eddies in the onflowing current of sidereal arrangement.
Their miscellaneous contents are, to all appearance, disposed along
eddying lines. Mr. H. C. Russell's photographs[96] rendered this, in
1890, to some extent manifest, and their indications were ratified by
the Arequipa plates, from the study of which Professor Pickering
gained the conviction that the great Looped Nebula, 30 Doradûs, is
the structural nucleus of the Nubecula Major. 'It seems,' he wrote,
[97] 'to be the centre of a great spiral, and to bear the relation to the
entire system that the nebula in Orion bears to the great spiral
nebula which covers a large part of that constellation.'
On all sides, in the sidereal heavens, we can discern the signs of the
working of a law of convolution. Sometimes they are patent to view;
sometimes half submerged; but they can generally, with attention,
be disentangled from overlying appearances. They are exhibited by
stars no less than by nebulæ, as the late Dr. Roberts pointed out
from convincing photographic evidence; the 'hairy' appendages of
globular clusters betray them by their curvilinear forms; they meet
us in every corner of the wide nebular realm. Many investigators
recognise in the Milky Way itself the stamp of spirality. Stephen
Alexander, of New Jersey,[98] regarded the majestic galactic arch as
a four-branched spiral, resulting from catastrophic breaches in a
primitive, equatorially loaded spheroid, the currents of matter
ejected by which should, owing to their lower angular rotation, lag
behind as they retreated from the nucleus, and thus flow along
helicoidal lines. R. A. Proctor subsequently devised convoluted
galactic streams, which, however, corresponded imperfectly with
what the sky showed. And Dr. Easton[99] has designed by way of
simple illustration an elaborate series of spires, originating possibly
from a central galactic condensation, the projection of which upon
the sphere may, he thinks, account for the known peculiarities of the
Milky Way.
Our interior situation, nevertheless, makes it extremely difficult to
determine the real relations in space of the star-streams circling
around it. The observed facts are, perhaps, equally compatible with
many other structural schemes besides those based on the idea of
spirality; and it will be prudent to adopt none, for the present, with
settled conviction. We can, however, gather one sufficiently definite
piece of information regarding the history of the Cosmos. All the
inmates of the heavens, stellar and nebular, represent quite
evidently the débris of a primitive rotating spheroid. Its equator is
still marked by the galactic annulus, its poles by a double canopy of
white nebulæ. The gyrating movement which it once possessed as a
whole doubtless survives in its parts, but ages must elapse before
the fundamental sidereal drift can be elicited.

FOOTNOTES:
[85] Keeler, Lick Publications, vol. iii., p. 214.
[86] Rosse, Transactions Royal Dublin Society, vol. ii., p. 93.
[87] First detected as such by Holden and Schaeberle in 1888,
Monthly Notices, vol. xlviii., p. 388.
[88] Deslandres, Bulletin Astronomique, February, 1900.
[89] Astronomical Journal, Nos. 539, 547.
[90] Maunder, Knowledge, vol. xix., p. 39.
[91] Dr. Max Wolf places the point of nebular concentration in
R.A. 12h 53m, D. +61° 20´, that assigned to the galactic pole
being in R.A. 12h 49m, D. +62°. Königstuhl Publ., Bd. I., p. 174.
[92] T. J. J. See, 'Repulsive Forces in Nature,' Popular Astronomy,
No. 100, December, 1902.
[93] The Earth's Beginnings, pp. 243-247.
[94] Cf. Moulton, Astrophysical Journal, vol. xxii., p. 165.
[95] Monthly Notices, vol. lx., p. 259.
[96] See Knowledge, vol. xiv., p. 50.
[97] Harvard Annals, vol. xxvi., p. 206.
[98] Astronomical Journal, vol. ii., p. 100, 1852.
[99] Astrophysical Journal, vol. xii., p. 158.
 CHAPTER XIII
THE PROCESSION OF SUNS
Phenomena are functions of time, and the form of the function has to
be determined in each particular case. That is what the historical
method comes to, and its use is prevalent and almost compulsory.
We can no longer be satisfied with a simple bird's-eye view of the
universe; our thoughts are irresistibly driven to grope into its past,
and to divine its future. Statical conceptions sufficed for our
intellectual forefathers. They aimed at establishing the equilibrium of
things, while we see them in a never-ending flux. One aspect of
them calls up the next, and that another, and so on ad infinitum; we
cannot, if we would, balance our ideas on the pivot of the transient
present.
The immutable heavens of the ancients strike us to-day as the
invention of a strange race of beings. We see them, on the contrary,
with Shelley as a 'frail and fading sphere,' a 'brief expanse,' the seat
and scene of change. The 'fixed' stars long ago broke away from
their moorings, and began to flit at large through space. Of late a
less obvious, more intimate kind of mobility has been attributed to
them. Grooves of individual development have been assigned to
them, along which they appear to shift as the tardy ages go by; and
since everything that grows must decay, the orbs of heaven, too,
incur the doom of mortality. But modern science has done much
more than extend to them the dismal philosophy of the phrase, 'Tout
passe, tout casse, tout lasse.' The grandiose enterprise has been not
unsuccessfully essayed of tracing in detail the progress of sidereal
evolution, and of marshalling the vast stellar battalions in order of
seniority. This has been rendered feasible by the disclosures of the
spectroscope. Apart from their guidance, the track might have been
seen by elusive glimpses, but could never have been laid down with
any approach to definiteness. Herschel found for it a terminus à quo
in nebulæ of various forms, but attempted to pursue it no further.
We do not hesitate to run it on, from station to station, right down
to the terminus ad quem. Not, it is true, without the perception of
outstanding difficulties and insecurities, which yet seem to be
outweighed by a certain inevitableness of self-arrangement in the
related facts.
The argument from continuity is that mainly relied upon. An
unbroken succession of instances is strongly persuasive of actual
transition, provided only that a principle of development (so to call
it) may reasonably be assumed as influential. A series of
mineralogical specimens, however finely differenced, does not
suggest the progressive enrichment of one original mass of ore. In
the stars, on the other hand, a species of vitality may be said to
reside. They are not finished-off products, but spontaneously-acting
machines. They are centres of energy, which they dispense gratis,
supplying the cost out of their own funds. And the process is not
only obviously terminable, but must be accompanied by
constitutional alterations, which might be traceable by subtle
methods of inquiry. They are traceable, unless we are deceived by
illusory appearances.
Secchi's classification of the stars was unwarped by any speculative
fancy. It was purely formal; it aimed only at providing distinct
compartments for the convenient arrangement of a multitude of
differently characterized items of information. Then, by degrees, the
closeness of the gradations between one class and the next came to
be noticed; partitions melted away; the methodized array showed
itself to be in movement; and the bare framework took shape, under
the auspices of Zöllner and Vogel, as a cosmic pedigree. The white
stars were set forth as the progenitors of yellow, yellow of red stars;
and the insensibly progressive reinforcement of the traits of
relationship between the successive types went far towards
demonstrating some partial, if not a complete, correspondence of
the indicated order with the truth of things. It has since been found
necessary to divide the first stellar class into helium and Sirian stars;
and here, too, essential diversity shades off imperceptibly into
likeness approximating to identity. All the groups hang together; the
entire scheme is on an inclined plane of change. Helium stars, as
they condense, pass into Sirian, these into solar stars, which finally,
reddening through the increase of absorption, exhibit the badge of
post-meridional existence in fluted spectra. The finality of the red
stage is, indeed, very far from being absolute, but what lies beyond
is matter of conjecture.
There are several good reasons for taking helium stars to be the
'youngest' or most primitive of the amazing assemblage that sparkle
in the vault of heaven. The first is their affinity with nebulæ. Every
star, perceived to be involved in folds or effusions of shining haze,
has yielded—if bright enough for profitable examination—a spectrum
of helium quality. Further, they are remarkably tenuous bodies. It
has been ascertained with approximate certainty, from the
investigation of stellar eclipses, that helium stars are commonly,
perhaps invariably, of far slighter consistence than the sun.
Radiation, however, is maintained by contraction; hence, orbs at the
outset of their course must be, on the whole, the most diffuse. A
third note of youth is membership of embryo systems, and this is
affixed very markedly to helium stars. One-third certainly, probably
one-half of those lately submitted to trial by Professors Frost and
Adams proved to have spectroscopic companions. They are pairs
believed to have been recently divided by the fission of a single
parent-globe. And this is an operation which must, we should
suppose, be undergone early, or not at all.
The spectra of helium stars are peculiar and suggestive. Those
belonging to Miss Maury's earliest groups—many of them visibly
nebulous—bear next to no traces of metallic absorption, showing
instead lines of oxygen, of nitrogen, and of hydrogen in all its three
series. The conditions, accordingly, needed to produce the 'cosmic'
modification of hydrogen are realized in these inchoate bodies. What
those conditions actually are we cannot tell, yet it may be
confidently surmised that they will prove to be of an electrical
nature. Hydrogen resembles the metals in being electro-positive; it
collects at the negative pole during the electrolytic decomposition of
water. There is, however, an unmistakable tendency in primitive
sidereal objects to display absorption rays of electro-negative rather
than of electro-positive elements. It is conceivable that hydrogen
may be capable of altering its behaviour in this respect, and that the
molecules radiating the Pickering and Rydberg series, in addition to
the more familiar Huggins series, have, in fact, through some
corpuscular re-arrangement, assumed the electro-negative quality
properly characterizing a non-metallic substance. The association of
this form of hydrogen with oxygen and nitrogen in early helium stars
would thus be naturally related to the simultaneous quasi-
disappearance from them of the spectral badges of metals.
The helium-line most distinctive of this stellar family is situated well
up in the blue. It appertains to the same vibrational sequence with
D3, which is also represented in Rigel, one of the more 'advanced'
Orion stars. In Rigel, too, we meet a fairly prominent magnesium
ray, lying below the blue helium emanation, while as yet iron is
unapparent. Numerous fine, faint streaks, due to its absorption, only
emerge when the Sirian type is fully reached, and they are mostly of
the 'enhanced' kind. When the spark discharge is substituted for the
arc as the source of illumination, certain lines in the resulting
spectrum brighten relatively to the others, and these have been
distinguished by Sir Norman Lockyer as 'enhanced.' Now, the rule is
strikingly prevalent that the absorption rays in white stars are of this
class; yet it can no longer be interpreted as indicating for them an
excessively high temperature. Rather, it would seem that electrical
conditions still imperfectly defined are in question, and their gradual
removal or subsidence is, beyond doubt, largely instrumental in
bringing about the transition to the solar stage. The effacement of
helium-absorption is even more perplexing. No sooner does iron
begin to show than it vanishes. There is still a faint trace of its 'blue'
line in Vega; none survives in Sirius.
In spectra of the solar type two great bars of violet light are stopped
out by calcium; otherwise metallic arc-lines predominate, while those
of hydrogen are no longer so powerfully emphasized as in white
stars. Moreover, the whiteness of the unveiled Sirian photospheres
has become tinged with yellow owing to the development of a
shallow envelope partly impermeable to blue rays. For this reason
the comparative extension of their ultra-violet spectra affords, for
stars of different types, no secure criterion of relative temperature.
Sound in principle, it becomes inapplicable when the unknown factor
of general absorption comes into play. The energy-curve of the solar
spectrum, as it is, can be determined; the energy-curve of the solar
spectrum, as it would be if unaffected by general absorption, has to
be constructed from inference. But only photospheres bare to space
give comparable results. Hence, there are no valid grounds for
asserting that Sirius is hotter than the sun, or the sun than
Betelgeux. It may be so, but the evidence at present available is
inconclusive. The appearances expounded in this sense may bear
quite different meanings.
The reasons for holding that solar mature into Antarian stars are of
the same character, and of equal cogency with those tending to
prove their own development from luminaries of Sirian type. There is
a similar continuity of specimens. They can be ranged one after
another in an unbroken series, in which, as we run down the line,
primrose shades into orange, and orange into red; general
absorption arrests an increasing percentage of the blue radiations,
while specific absorption becomes strengthened by dusky
channellings of titanium. Carbon stars are less easily located. Dr.
Vogel regards them as co-ordinate with the Antarian class. The two
varieties of red stars with banded spectra descend, in his opinion,
from the common stock exemplified by our sun. Professor Hale also
favours this view, some attendant difficulties notwithstanding. His
photographs have certainly established for carbon stars links of
relationship both with the Antarian and the solar families; yet the
fact remains indisputable that the carbon type is, to a great extent,
isolated from all the rest. Tokens of a genuine migration towards it
are few and obscure.
The ultimate fate of both tribes of red stars can only be conjectured.
Most of the objects constituting them vary in brightness, some to the
verge of periodical extinction; and variability may be a symptom of
interior dilapidation. But the organization of such bodies is
profoundly enigmatical. They are exceptionally remote, and offer
slight holding-ground for inquiry. No indications have been gathered
as to their density or intrinsic light-power. Very little is known about
their movements. They rarely form binary combinations, and those
that they do form are almost always relatively fixed. No red star
travels in a computed orbit; only one, η Geminorum, occurs on the
long list of spectroscopic binaries. The revolutions of this curious
system ought to prove, when thoroughly investigated, replete with
interest and instruction.
Coupled stars present special opportunities to students of
cosmogony. They are obviously contemporaries; they have started
fair in the evolutionary race; identical influences have acted upon
them; hence, differences in their standing can only result from
dissimilarities in mass or composition. It is commonly taken for
granted that a body containing less matter than its fellow must
develop faster, and incur the final quenching sooner. But Sir William
and Lady Huggins have adverted to the probability of the very
opposite being the case. Powerful surface-gravity may, they consider,
serve to hasten the transition from a Sirian to a solar spectrum; and
we should then have giant suns like Capella, advanced in type while
at a very early stage of condensation. This perhaps explains the
remarkable spectral relations of contrasted stellar pairs. Always, so
far as we yet know, the Sirian spectrum is yielded by the lesser star,
the mass of which, judging by analogy, must be even smaller than
would be indicated by the proportion of its faintness. It is true that
the distribution of mass in binary systems is often widely different
from what might have been anticipated. Certain purplish satellites,
for instance, of undetermined spectral quality exercise a gravitative
sway of surprising force. Some results of this kind lately obtained by
Mr. Lewis and others are likely to prove of fundamental importance
to theories of stellar evolution.
What we know of 'dark stars' has been mainly derived from the
observation of stellar systems. They are assumed to be the denizens
of a stellar Hades, dim wanderers amid the shades, who 'have had
their day, and ceased to be' as suns. In the 'cold obstruction' of
these viewless orbs the grand cosmical procession is held to
terminate. Their presence attests the downward progress of decay,
and gives logical completeness to the argument for development.
Yet there are circumstances warning us against too full an assurance
that their status is really that of skeletons at the feast of light. They
are very frequently found to be in close attendance upon brilliant
white stars. Thus intimately, if incongruously, coupled, they circulate
and compel circulation in brief periods, as members of systems just,
it might be said, out of the shell. What are we to think, for instance,
of the obscure body spectroscopically discovered to control the
revolutions of the chief star in the Orion trapezium? It is evidently
comparable in mass with that imperfectly condensed luminary. Is it
credible that it has already traversed all the stages of stellar
existence, and cooled down to planetary rank? So violent an
assumption should at least not be made without due consideration;
and we may more prudently hold our judgment in suspense as to
whether globes so circumstanced—and they abound—should be
regarded as effete, or as abortive suns.[100]
Speculations on the exhaustion of stellar vitality have lately become
inextricably involved with the complex problem of elemental
evolution. A dim inkling has been acquired of the activity in the
universe of obscure forces, availing, we can just see, to falsify many
forecasts. The theory, among others, of the dissipation of energy
needs to be revised or qualified. Nor was it propounded by Lord
Kelvin with dogmatic certainty. He carefully noted the possibility that
in 'the great storehouses of creation' reserves of energy might be
provided by which the losses incurred through radiation could be,
wholly or in part, made good.[101] The anticipated possibility is
perhaps realized in the phenomena of radio-activity. But if we inquire
how, we are met at the threshold by difficulties connected with the
origin of helium. Helium appears to result from the disintegration of
radium, its generation being accompanied by the setting free of
enormous quantities of energy. Its copious presence, then, argues
long-continued and lavish expenditure of heat and light. Yet it is as a
constituent of highly primitive orbs that it is chiefly conspicuous.
Gaseous nebulæ, too, include immeasurable supplies of it, while it is
incompatible with whatever we seem to know about them to
suppose that radium at any time entered into their composition.
The genesis of the elements has, in truth, not yet been made the
subject of coherent speculation. Current ideas regarding it imply a
double course of change, by aggregation first, and subsequently by
disintegration. And this should give us a twofold series of elements.
On one side there should be fixed survivals from the advancing
process, on the other, products of decomposition, continuously
evolved, and even now accumulating. If the claim of helium to take
rank among these last should be finally established, our conceptions
of the nature and history of nebulæ might have to undergo a
strange inversion; but the outcome of the researches in progress is
still uncertain, and may be far off.
It is, nevertheless, quite clear that the electronic theory of matter
supplies no genuine explanation of the source of energy in the
universe. What is given out when the atoms go to pieces must have
been stored up when they were put together. Whence was it
derived? This is the fundamental question which underlies every
discussion concerning the maintenance of the life of suns. It is
unanswered, and probably unanswerable.
 FOOTNOTES:
[100] It must at the same time be borne in mind that their total
darkness is not proved. All that is certain is that their spectra are
not bright enough to leave any impression on the exposed plates.
[101] Thomson and Tait, Natural Philosophy, Appendix E, p. 494,
edition 1890.
 CHAPTER XIV
OUR OWN SYSTEM
Our sun is clearly middle-aged. It bears none of the marks
associated with juvenility in stars, while its decrepitude is in the
distant future. It is crossing, most likely, a level tract where
recuperation so nearly balances expenditure that radiation can be
maintained for an indefinite time at a high and fairly uniform
standard. Stars of the solar type pursue the even tenor of their way
with particularly few interruptions. They show little tendency to
intrinsic variability. Their periodicity, when it exists, is due to the
presence of a companion. Variables, in other words, belonging to the
spectral family of our sun, are binary systems; and they are usually,
if not always, non-eclipsing binaries, on the pattern of δ Cephei.
Light changes can thus be impressed upon sunlike stars by external
influence; they do not conspicuously arise through native instability.
Our planet, accordingly, is attached to a safe and steady luminary,
one subject, not to destructive spasms, but to vicissitudes so mild as
to evade distinct meteorological recognition.[102] It is, moreover,
governed by a polity settled on a broad basis of tranquillity and
permanence. All this is as it should be. The conditions specified were
a pre-requisite to the unfolding of human destinies. Nor can it be
confidently asserted that they have been realized anywhere else.
Our system may be unique; while, on the other hand, replicas of it
might, imperceptibly to us, be profusely scattered through the wide
realms of space. It is certain that a telescopic observer on Sirius or α
Centauri would see our sun unattended; not even Jupiter could be
brought into view by optical appliances in any degree comparable to
those at our disposal.
There are, nevertheless, strict limitations to the possible diffusion of
planetary worlds like those that wander amid the zodiacal
constellations. We have become aware of incapacitating
circumstances, by which a multitude of stars are precluded from
maintaining retinues of subordinate globes. Spectroscopic
discoveries have compelled a revision of ideas as to cosmical
arrangements. Especially the large proportion established by them of
binary to single stars makes it impossible any longer to regard the
solar system as a pattern copied at large throughout the sidereal
domain. We cannot, then, compare it with any other; the mechanism
of which the earth forms part must, perforce, be studied in itself and
by itself, and it may, for aught that appears, be the outcome of
special and peculiar design.
The machine in question is self-sustaining and self-regulating; no
extraneous power noticeably affects its working. This immunity from
disturbance is the fortunate consequence of its isolation. A great
void surrounds it. The span of Neptune's orbit is but a hand-breadth
compared with the tremendous unoccupied gulf outside—
unoccupied, that is to say, by bodies of substantial mass. The
feebleness of starlight relatively to sunlight affords some kind of
measure of the impotence of stellar attractions to compete with the
over-ruling gravitational power that sways the planetary circulation.
This it is which gives to it such remarkable stability. The
incomparable superiority of the sun over his dependent orbs not only
safeguards them against foreign interference, but reduces to
insignificance their mutual perturbations. Hence the strong
concentration of force exemplified in our system—the absolutely
despotic nature of the authority exercised—makes for a settled order
by excluding subversive change.
The organization of the solar kingdom, as disclosed by modern
research, is greatly more varied and complex than Laplace took it to
be. His genetic scheme was, indeed, no sooner promulgated than
deviations from the regularity and unanimity of movement upon
which it was based began to assert their inconvenient reality. They
have since multiplied; and, emerging to notice under the most
unlikely aspects, they occasion incongruities which tax, for their
explanation, all the resources and audacities of the most inventive
cosmogonists. Let us briefly consider their nature.
The swarm of asteroids that bridge the gap between Mars and
Jupiter revolve, it is true, with the general swirl of planetary
movement; but they use a large license as regards the shape and lie
of their orbits. And their partial exemption from the rules of the road
becomes entire for comets and meteors, which have nevertheless
proved themselves to be aboriginal in our system by their full
participation in its proper motion. Finally, several of the major
planets set convention at defiance in the arrangement of their
several households, and thereby intimate departures from the
supposed normal course of development so frequent and so
considerable as to shake belief even in its qualified prevalence. Thus,
the anomalously short period of the inner satellite of Mars, besides
throwing doubt over its own mode of origin, tends to obscure the
history of its more sedately circulating associate. Deimos cannot
have been thrown off from its primary under conditions materially
different from those attending the birth of Phobos.
The sub-systems of Uranus and Neptune exhibit, moreover, eddies of
retrograde movement suggesting primitive disturbances of a
fundamental kind; while the surprising disclosures connected with
Saturn's firstborn and furthest satellite, photographically detected by
Professor W. H. Pickering in 1898, have added one more knotted
thread to the tangled skein we would fain unravel. Until
acquaintance was made with Phœbe, counterflows of revolution
within the same satellite-family were unknown, and, if contemplated
at all, would have been scouted as impossible. One ternary star, to
be sure—ξ Scorpii—had been recognised as probably owning an
immediate and a more remote attendant, in oppositely directed
orbital movement;[103] but the cases are in many ways disparate,
and the analogy, though instructive, is imperfect.
If the ninth Saturnian moon is to be regarded as sprung from the
condensing mass of the planet, a total change in the state of the
parent body must have supervened during the long interval between
its separation and that of its successor, Iapetus. The change, in
Professor W. H. Pickering's opinion,[104] was nothing less than a
reversal of axial movement. The nebulous spheroid destined to
develop into the wonderful Saturnian system had, presumably, when
Phœbe became detached from it, a diameter of sixteen million miles,
and gyrated tranquilly from east to west, in a period of about a year
and a half. But the action of sun-raised tides availed first to destroy
and finally to invert this movement; for the natural outcome of tidal
friction is synchronism, and this implies agreement, both in period
and direction, between the rotation and revolution of the body acted
upon. Acceleration through contraction did the rest; and by the time
another satellite was ready to separate, the originating globe span
normally in seventy-nine days, the actual revolutionary period of
Iapetus. The view that such was the course of events is plausible at
first sight; yet the doubt remains whether the cause alleged was
adequate to the effect produced. At the distance of Saturn, solar
tidal friction exerts only about 1/20000 its power on the earth;[105]
its efficacy would, on the other hand, be greatly enhanced by the
distension of the mass subjected to it; but approximately to what
extent, our powers of calculation are impotent to determine.
This is not all. Exhaustive photographic research promises to unfold
intricacies of construction in secondary systems demanding the
patient industry of many generations for their complete unravelment.
The families of the great planets will perhaps be found to include
crowds of inferior members which pay slight heed in their circulatory
arrangements to the trammels of convention. In those of both
Jupiter and Saturn the phenomenon has lately been brought to light
of 'asteroidal' satellites, as they may be termed, minute bodies
travelling round their primaries at nearly the same mean distances,
each group evidently representing the unagglomerated materials of
a single full-sized satellite. The pigmy components of such groups
doubtless exist in multitudes; each great planet, most likely, is
encompassed by at least one zone of moonlets; but so far only
specimen-objects have been picked up. The tenth Saturnian satellite,
discovered, like its predecessor, by Professor W. H. Pickering, is thus
associated, by its period and locality, with Hyperion, the seventh and
least prominent of Saturn's visual train, the apparent insignificance
of which suggested to Sir John Herschel that it might have many co-
occupants of the wide gap between Titan and Iapetus.[106] But the
surmise had to await verification until methods were intensified
beyond what seemed possible in the middle of the nineteenth
century.
The corresponding Jovian pair found by Professor Perrine circulate
far outside the boundaries of the original Galilean realm, in orbits
which interlock as a consequence of their marked difference in
eccentricity.[107] They are mutually inclined at an angle of 27
degrees, nor are they supposed actually to intersect, so that
collisions are apparently out of the question. Direct movement is
indicated, but cannot yet be claimed to belong quite certainly to
both objects. We are only beginning to make acquaintance with the
submerged populations of the Saturnian and Jovian kingdoms; they
are perhaps multitudinous; they are certainly peculiar, and we await
impatiently and curiously the further developments of their
remarkable behaviour.
The one certain inference derivable from the diversity of facts
ascertained within the last hundred years is that our world is not (so
to speak) machine-made. The modus operandi employed to
disengage the planets from their nebulous matrix was not of cast-
iron rigidity; it was adaptable to circumstances; it left room for the
display of boundless inventiveness in details. This was made,
nevertheless, to consist with the perfect preservation of the main
order, both in design and operation. The general plan is broadly laid
down and unmistakable; the springs of the machine are undisturbed
in their free play, and for the primary reason that departures from
regularity, which might, in any way, prove a menace to stability,
affect bodies of negligible mass. The great swing of settled
movement goes on irrespectively of them. 'De minimis non curat
lex.'
So the erratic procedure of comets is harmless only because of their
insignificance. If imitated by substantially attractive masses, it could
not fail to jeopardize the planetary adjustments. Even the asteroids
would be unsafe neighbours but for their impotence; and it is
remarkable that Mercury, by far the smallest of the major planets,
circulates along a track of the asteroidal type. It would seem as if an
important size carried with it an obligation to revolve in an orbit of
small eccentricity, inclined at a low angle to the principal plane of the
system. The reason why this should be so is not obvious; but were it
otherwise the equilibrium, now so firmly established, would subsist
precariously, or not at all.
The assertion, indeed, that it is firmly established can only be made
under reserve. We are ignorant of any causes tending towards its
overthrow; yet they may supervene, or be already imperceptibly
active. One such lurking possibility is the presence of a resisting
medium in interplanetary space. Waifs and strays of matter must,
beyond doubt, be encountered there—outlawed molecules, self
expelled from the gaseous envelopes of feeble globes; thin remnants
of cometary paraphernalia, driven off amid the fugitive splendours of
perihelion; products of ionic dissociation set flying by the impact of
ultra-violet light—and all disseminated through an ethereal ocean,
which 'is cut away before and closes from behind' as moving bodies
traverse it. That its indifference is shared by ordinary material
substances, when in the last stage of attenuation, is a plausible but
unverified conjecture. It is only safe to say that retardation of
velocity in what may pass for empty space is insensible or null.
There may, nevertheless, be springs of decadence in the solar
system. Some of them have been discussed by M. Poincaré,[108]
whose confidence in the reassuring demonstrations of Laplace and
Lagrange is inversely proportional to the magnitude of the terms
they were forced to neglect. They dealt with fictitious globes, devoid
of appreciable dimensions, and swayed by the strict Newtonian law.
But the real planets and their satellites are acted on by other forces
as well, frictional, magnetic, radio-repulsive, the joint effects of
which may not be wholly evanescent. The tidal drag on rotation
undoubtedly occasions a small but irretrievable loss of energy. The
moon, for instance, as M. Poincaré states, now gains, by the reactive
consequences of tidal friction in widening its orbit, no more than
1/28 the vis viva of which the earth is deprived by the infinitesimal
slowing down of its rotation; and the remaining 27/28, being
dissipated abroad as heat, are finally abstracted from the system.
The ultimate state, we are told, towards which the planetary
mechanism tends is that of the synchronous revolution, in a period
of about twelve years, of all its members. This might, apart from the
possibility of a resisting medium, have indefinite permanence;
otherwise precipitation to the centre would gradually ensue, and one
solitary sphere, cold, stark, and unilluminated, would replace the
radiant orb of our cerulean skies, with its diversified and exquisitely
poised cortège. Unsecured drafts upon futurity, however, are not
among the most valuable assets of science, and a consummation so
immeasurably remote may be anticipated by a score of unforeseen
contingencies. What can be and has been ascertained is the relative
durability of the scheme with which the visible destinies of the
human race are so closely connected. It will unquestionably last long
enough for their accomplishment. Curiosity that would seek to pierce
the ulterior darkness is likely to remain ungratified.
But there is a further outlook. Other and incalculable items remain to
be taken into account. The sun, although an autocrat within his own
dominion, is himself subject to external influences. As a star, he is
compelled to follow whithersoever the combined attractions of his
fellow-stars draw him; nor can we thoroughly interpret the summons
which he obeys. The immediate upshot in the transport of the solar
system towards the constellation Lyra has, it is true, been
determined, but the eventual scope and purpose of the journey
remain profoundly obscure. The pace is to be reckoned as leisurely:
twelve miles a second is little more than half the average stellar
speed. We should, however, probably suffer no inconvenience from
being whirled through the ether in the train of such a stellar
thunderbolt as Arcturus. Only the excessive velocities of any
adventitious bodies we might happen to pick up would betray to
ordinary experience the fact of our own swift progress. As it is, our
sweepings from space appear to be scanty.
If shreds from inchoate worlds, or dust of crumbled worlds, strewed
the path of our system, they should be annexed by it in its passage,
temporarily or completely, and we should then expect to find the
apex of the sun's way marked, if no otherwise, by the predominant
inflow from that quarter of comets and meteors. Yet there is no
trace of such a preference in the distribution of their orbits. Hence
the enforced conclusion that the sun has attached to him, besides
the members of his immediate household, an indefinite crowd of
distant retainers, which, by their attendance upon his march, claim
with him original corporate unity. To this rule there may be a few
exceptions. An occasional aerolite probably enters the earth's
atmosphere with hyperbolic velocity, and takes rank accordingly as,
in the strictest sense, a foreign intruder; but the broad truth can
scarcely be challenged that the sun travels through a virtual void.
We can, however, see no necessity why he should for ever continue
to do so. Widely different conditions seem to prevail near the centre
and out towards the circumference of the sidereal world. What may
be designated the interior vacuity of the Milky Way is occupied
mainly by stars of the solar type, including one to our apprehension
super-eminent over the rest; they are separated by vast, apparently
clear intervals; they are non-nebulous, and of stable constitution.
This secure habitat is ours for the present, although it may at some
future time be exchanged for one less exempt from disturbance. The
shape and size of the sun's orbit are utterly unknown; the changes
of environment, accordingly, that will accompany the description of it
defy conjecture. Our actual course is inclined at a small angle to the
plane of the Milky Way. It will presumably become deflected, but
perhaps not sufficiently to keep our system clear of entanglement
with the galactic star-throngs. In our ignorance of their composition
no forecast of the results can be attempted: they are uncertain and
exorbitantly remote. Moreover, the comparative slowness of the
sun's motion in a manner guarantees the permanence of his
subsisting cosmical relations. For anything that science can tell, they
may ultimately be subverted by some preordained catastrophe; but
the possibility lies outside the sphere of rational forecast.
The universe, as reflected in the mind of man, gains extent as the
mirror acquires polish. Early astronomers conceived of but one solar
system and one 'dædal earth,' upon which the 'pale populace of
heaven' rained influences sinister or propitious. Later, human
egotism took another form. The whole universe was assimilated to
our particular little settlement in it. Terrestrial conditions were
universalized. None divergent from them were counted admissible or
profitable. But one answer seemed possible to the perpetual Cui
bono? with which restless thought assailed the heavens. But one
purpose was regarded as worthy of fulfilment, that of multiplying, in
distant sidereal climes, copies of our own planet, and of providing
suitable locations for myriads of intellectual beings, as little alien to
ourselves as might be compatible with the minimum of diversity in
their material surroundings.
The spread of this astral philanthropy has been in some measure
checked by the advance of knowledge. Our position and
circumstances have been shown by it to be, if not quite peculiar, at
any rate very far from inevitable. It has reduced, by a process of
exclusions, to a relatively limited number the class of stars that can
fairly be regarded as possible centres of vitality; it has immensely
widened the scope of discernible variety in cosmical arrangements,
and held out warnings against errors of exposition due to inborn
prejudices. And we shall surely not wander from the truth by
recognising our inability to penetrate all the depths and complexities
of Infinite Design.

FOOTNOTES:
[102] The uncertainty affecting the best attainable results in
weather-cycle investigation is rendered strikingly apparent by a
comparison of the able and laborious papers by H. W. Clough
(Astrophysical Journal, vol. xxii., p. 42), and C. Easton
(Petermann's Geogr. Mittheilungen, 1905, Heft VIII., and
Proceedings Amsterdam Academy of Sciences, June 24, 1905).
[103] R. T. A. Innes, Reference Catalogue, p. 155A.
[104] Harvard Annals, vol. liii., p. 61, where, however, the
reversal is explained by a shifting of the plane of rotation.
[105] G. H. Darwin, Philosophical Transactions, vol. clxxii., p. 526;
Moulton, Astrophysical Journal, vol. xi., p. 110.
[106] Monthly Notices, vol. ix., p. 91.
[107] F. E. Ross, Lick Bulletin, No. 82.
[108] Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes, 1898.
 CHAPTER XV
REMNANTS AND SURVIVALS
If the sun and planets were, in sober truth, wrought into their
present shape out of a primordial nebula, the comparatively void
surrounding space should naturally be strewn with fragments of
unappropriated material. For the process of englobement could
hardly, one would think, be carried out with such neatness and
precision as to leave no shreds or shavings lying about the great
atelier. Residual stuff there must be, unless our preconceived ideas
are grossly erroneous; nor have we far to look in order to find it. We
find it, apparently, under two forms presenting curious dissimilarities,
yet belonging fundamentally, we can scarcely doubt, to the same
order of things. These two kinds of waste product may be identified
in the innumerable army of comets and in the strange, pale cone of
the zodiacal light.
One of the most important and secure additions to knowledge in the
department of cosmogony made during the nineteenth century was
the establishment of comets in a position of entire, perennial, and
aboriginal dependence upon the sun. That is to say, a vast majority,
if not the whole of them, attend him on his sidereal journey. They
are, accordingly, and have immemorially been his clients, and they
can lose that status only through the effects of violent disturbance
compelling them to depart irrevocably from their closed orbits along
hyperbolic tracks. A trifling leakage of comets from our system is
thus possible, which may or may not be compensated by
annexations of adventitious members of the class, similarly banished
from the precincts of remote stars. But this is a secondary
consideration; the essential point to be borne in mind is that comets
are native-born subjects of the sun, that they make an integral part
of his cortège, that they own the same substantial origin, are
dominated by his power, and must share his fortunes. Their study
should then prove strongly illuminative as to the pre-history of our
system, and for this especial reason, that they seemingly belong by
right to that vanished world which it is the chosen task of
cosmogony to reconstruct. They are, we can infer, the genuine
primitives of the solar company; they retain something of prairie
wildness, not having been broken in by steadily enforced
gravitational discipline. Each perihelion passage is an adventure;
between it and the next, fateful incidents may occur. Forces
negligible on dense planetary globes act sensibly on their tenuous
materials; they in part strikingly illustrate, and in part fantastically
invert, the common modes of natural procedure. But it is their
antiquarian significance that mainly concerns us here.
Admitting for the inchoate solar nebula such a constitution as that
devised by Kant, and adopted with amendments by M. du Ligondès,
we find ourselves confronted with the almost inevitable consequence
of symptomatic survivals. Wisps of crude matter, in other words,
which escaped being drawn into the vortices of embryo planets
should continue to circulate, as they had from the first circulated, in
all possible planes, and with no partiality for either a right-handed or
a left-handed direction. These waifs and wastrels should, in fact, be
indistinguishable from comets—'les seuls témoins,' according to the
French cosmogonist, 'qui nous restent sur le mode de la circulation
première.'[109] The identification is seductive to the imagination, and
does not fall far short of convincing the reason.
There is clear evidence that what we may venture to call the native
mode of cometary circulation is absolutely exempt from the rules
which impress the movements of the planets with an unequivocal
stamp of congruity. The few comets showing some degree of
compliance with the general plan are those which have been
subjected to manifold perturbations, and can hence no longer be
called as unbiassed witnesses; while their untrained associates, left
relatively free to follow the impulsion of their start, betray no
geometrical preferences in their manner of travelling. They revolve
indifferently with or against the course of the signs; their paths are
inclined at every possible angle to the ecliptic; they approach the
sun in sensibly equal numbers from all quarters of the sky; they
agree only in pursuing ellipses so elongated as to verge towards the
parabolic limit. But just in this way, and no otherwise, we should
expect to find bodies circulating which, having been aggregated at
random (as Kant supposed) in the beginning, had departed to the
least possible extent from the initial conditions of their systemic
union. A good primâ facie case can, then, be made out for regarding
comets as samples of the used-up nebula, as superannuated
constituents of an inconceivable chaos, which, evading the operation
of laws of change, have floated down the stream of ages virtually
intact and undisturbed.
Yet the question has other aspects besides this purely mechanical
one. They should all be harmonized by truth, which cannot be more
securely guaranteed than by consilient testimony; nevertheless,
there are difficulties in effecting the accommodation. Comets are
not, in a chemical sense, closely related to nebulæ. They are
fundamentally of carbonaceous composition—free hydrogen makes
no spectroscopic show in them—while they include metallic
ingredients occasionally rendered glowing by the powerful
excitement of a perihelion rush-past. But gaseous nebulæ shine
mainly with the light of certain unknown substances, reinforced by
rays of hydrogen and helium. Carbon flutings and metallic lines are
alike alien to their spectra. Nor is there any community that we yet
know of between the chemistry of white nebulæ and that of comets.
The nebular hypothesis of cometary origin is thus discountenanced
by the results of light-analysis. Still, there are possibilities of
reconcilement. Spectral conditions must be subject to change. The
quality of light emitted by a body of mixed composition cannot fail to
alter with the inevitable alteration of physical state brought about by
external influences or internal change.
Selective illumination is beyond doubt largely concerned in modifying
the information we are able to obtain as to the composition of
remote masses, and its modes of action seem capricious because
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