NO END TO THE UNIVERSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12269, 13 May 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

NO END TO THE UNIVERSE.

DR. ALFRED R. WALLACE'S THEORY. De. Alfekp Russet. Wallace's theory, to the effect that the solar system is the centre of the universe, and the earth tins only inhabited celestial body, meets with no credit among French scientists. M. Berthelot and M. Maurice Leowy. director of the observatory of Paris, both scout the idea. M. Berthelot says: — This theory is puerile, and no man of science will take it seriously. It reminds me of an anecdote about Charles V., who, on being asked where the centre of the earth was, planted his sword in the ground and said : —' The centre is here; it is where I am.' " The universe being infinite, composed of a multitude of stars, suns, and planets, its centre is nowhere. Our mind is so formed that we cannot conceive of the universe otherwise than 'as infinite. The theory in question is the reawakening of an old Biblical theory, according to which God, haying created man in His own image and likeness, manufactured a- world to suit him. The Greek-" liad analogous ideas. They said that ' man is the measure of things.' The aphorism is pretty, but it is false if taken from an absolute point of view." - M. Leowy said:—"Dr. Wallace's assertion that the latest discoveries in astronomy and accepted theories regarding the proportion of light tend to prove that the stars are limited in number is doubly false. In certain parts of the heavens we do not see any stars, hut it would, be madness to conclude that the end of the universe had been reached. It would be as a short-sighted man were to claim that there were' no stars except those which he could see. "In regard to light, it is an admitted theory that luminous waves from a source of light are transmitted without losing anything of its intensity. Therefore.;, it is said, if the stars were infinite in number and equally distributed throughout the universe, it would be as light by night as by day. These arguments are not embarrassing. First of all, it appears certain that the stars are not regularly distributed, but are grouped in mosses in vast agglomerations. "And as for the light theory, it has only been verified over relatively small distances, bub light, which travels at a' rate of 77,000 leagues " a second, takes 100,000 years to come- from some stars to the'earth. It is quite possible that, over such vast space, it is diminished much in intensity. " The earth is by no means in a privileged situation, nor is the sun the centre of the univeise. There are so many stars bigger than the sun that not a single astronomer will dream for a moment of defending any such hypotheses which are in contradiction and are mere fruits of the imagination."