Amongst the first to advance the meteoric hypothesis of the origin and formation of the solar system was probably the late Mr. Richard A. Proctor. This was done in his work, “Other Worlds than Ours,” published in 1870. “Under the continual rain of meteoric matter,” he says, “it may be said that the earth, sun, and planets are _growing_. Now, the idea obviously suggests itself that the whole growth of the solar system, from its primal condition to its present state, may have been due to processes resembling those which we now see taking place within its bounds.” He further adds: “It seems to me that not only has this general view of the mode in which our system has reached its present state a greater support from what is now actually going on than the nebular hypothesis of Laplace, but that it serves to account in a far more satisfactory manner for the principal peculiarities of the solar system. I might, indeed, go farther, and say that where those peculiarities seem to oppose themselves to Laplace’s theory they give support to those I have put forward.”[15] He then goes on to show the points wherein his theory seems to him to offer a better explanation of those peculiarities than that of Laplace. [Footnote 15: _Other Worlds_, chap. ix.] 5. _The gaseous condition the second stage of a nebula._—The second stage obviously follows as a necessary consequence from the first; for the fragments, in the case under consideration, possess energy in the form of motion, which, with the heat of their circumambient vapour, is more than sufficient not only to convert the fragments into the gaseous state, but to produce complete dissociation of the chemical elements. The complete transformation of the first stage into the second must, therefore, be simply a matter of time. According to the laws of probability it may, however, sometimes happen that the two original dark bodies will not collide with force sufficient to confer on the broken fragments the energy required to convert them all into the gaseous condition. The result in this case would, no doubt, be that the untransformed fragments, drawn together by their mutual attractions, would collide and form an imperfect star or sun, without a planet. Such a star might continue luminous for a few thousands or perhaps a few millions of years, as the case might be, when it would begin to fade, and finally disappear. We have here an imperfect nebula, resulting in an imperfect star. In short, we should have in those stellar masses, on a grand scale, what we witness every day around us in organic nature, viz. imperfect formations. Such occasional imperfections give variety and add perfection to the whole. How dreary and monotonous would nature be, were every blade of grass, every plant, every animal, and every face we met formed after the most perfect model!