Abstract
A COPY of a paper published in the Messenger of Mathematics in March 1898, entitled “On the Oscillations of a Heterogeneous Compressible Liquid Sphere and the Genesis of the Moon; and on the Figure of the Moon”, has been sent to the Editor of NATURE by Mr. W. F. Sedgwick, who graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in the year 1894. Mr. Sedgwick has also submitted the manuscript of an unsuccessful essay sent in by him for the Smith's Prize at the end of the year 1895 “On the Vibrations of a Heterogeneous Liquid Sphere, with Applications to the Solar System; and on the Elastic Solid Theory of the Earth”. He states that the applications to the solar system on pp. 170–171 of his published paper were based on considerations set out in much greater detail in his essay. His communications throw additional light on the history of ideas concerning the origin of the solar system. His paper has been generally overlooked in this connexion—not unnaturally, considering the somewhat distant relation between its subject and its setting—but there is no doubt of its relevance, and Sir James Jeans, in a letter to the Editor, remarks: “I regret that Mr. Sedgwick's work had entirely escaped my notice until my attention was recently directed to it. His theory of the origin of the solar system appears to have nothing in common with my own, except that both postulate tidal actions—of very different kinds. But I very gladly acknowledge that Mr. Sedgwick's hypothesis of a tidal origin for the solar system was earlier than my own.”
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