Another Appreciation.

Progress, Volume III, Issue 11, 1 September 1908, Page 370

Another Appreciation.

C. W. Adams.

(To the Editor of Progress ) Sir, — It is recorded of Sir Isaac Newton, that, when asked how it was that he had gained such a thorough knowledge of the law of gravitation, which binds the whole universe together, he replied: "By making- it continually the subject of my thoughts " This is the method pursued by every true student of science, and there is no doubt that Professor Bickerton has made the "Evolution of the Cosmos" the subject of his thoughts for the last thirty years, during which period, in season and out of season, he has never ceased to proclaim his firm belief in the birth of new world from the collision of old ones. I ha%e

read with very great pleasure, and increasing interest, the lucid, articles from Piofessor Biekerton's pen, that have appeared in three succes sive issues of Progress, during the months of April. May and June, in which he proves, step by step, that all the phenomena of a new star can be satisfactorily explained by his theory. But ' ' a prophet has no honour in his own country," and frequently not in his own lifetime, as it was in the ease of Galileo, who was thrown into prison and otherwise persecuted, because he asserted that the earth mo^ ed round the sun, and not vice verse. A few years ago I was leading up the subject of periodic and temporary stars in a standard work on astronomy, where it was stated that the observed phenomena had been explained by four different hypotheses which I need not give here, as the article conclude*! with the statement that not one of these hypotheses would satisfactorily account for the vauous changes that had been observed. Now, Professor Bickeiton's theory accounts in a most wonderful mannei for every change that has been observed m temporary and \ariable stars; and not only that, but as long as a quarter of a century ago, he actually predicted what would be the successive changes observed in the appearance of a new star, and his predictions were verified m a most leinarkable manner in the case of the two stars Nova Persei and Nova Aurigae. For my own part 1 never accept the conclusions come to by some of the greatest thinkers of the piesent day, that the ultimate doom of the Sun, Moon and Stars, in fact, of the whole visible universe, was that they should "go out mto b'ackness and darkness for e\ er. ' ' Surely the Creator of the universe, in His infinite wisdom, would not make a system that was liable to "run down" like a common clock. Tt seems very strange that a theory that explains so many details of the evolution of the Cosmas (and in such a satisfactory manner), should not have met with a more ready acceptance from the scientific world ; and the only reason I can assign for such a state of things, is the feeling of jealousy among professional men that a man who is not a professional astronomer should venture to criticise their writings, and strike out into an entirely new line of thought. But this is not all that Professor Bickerton has to complain of. I have myself noticed in various magazines of late years, articles from different writers giving variations of Professor Bickerton 's ideas on the subject, but putting them forward as their own. I had no doubt when I read them that they were mspued by Professor Biekerton's writings, and I notified him, through the post on each occasion, so that he might take the necessary steps to assert his claim as the onginal expounder of the ideas put forward. It is the duty of every citizen of New Zealand to do his best to see that we render "honour to whom honour is due, " and not leave the vindication of Professor Bickerton 's claims to the next geneiation — I am, etc, C W Adams.