What Professor Newcomb's objections to the conclusions of Hansen were we do not know, but we do know that Mr. Proctor also objected to the "curious theory," as it is called by Mr. Chambers. In his "Poetry on Astronomy," he discusses pretty fully the withdrawal of water from the surface of the moon during the process of cooling and condensation, ascribing the conception of it to four independent authors, namely, Seeman, a German geologist, Frankland in England, Stanislas Mennier in France, and Sterry Hunt in America; and in a footnote, at page 163, says of Hansen's theory: "The idea was that the moon, though nearly spherical, is sometimes egg-shaped, the smaller end of the egg-shaped figure being directed towards the earth. Now, while it is perfectly clear that on this supposition the greater part of the moon's visible half would be of the nature of a gigantic elevation above the mean level, and would, therefore, be denuded (or might be denuded) of its seas and denser parts of the air covering it, yet it is equally clear that all around the base of this monstrous lunar elevation, the seas would be gathered together, and the air would be at its densest. But it is precisely round the base of this part of the moon or, in other words, round the border of the lunar hemisphere, that we should have the best chance of perceiving the effects of air and seas, if any really existed; and it is because of the absolute absence of all evidence of the kind, that astronomers regard the moon as having no seas and very little air."
Had the idea of centrifugal force ever occurred to Mr. Proctor, he could not have written this last sentence; for he could not have failed to see that "the border of the visible lunar hemisphere" would be the very place, from which it could most easily remove air and water, after they had got so far down the monstrous elevation; because there it--the centrifugal force--would be acting at right angles to the moon's attraction, instead of having to contend against it, as it would have to do in a constantly increasing degree until it arrived at its maximum, just in proportion to the distance the air and water got down to the similar monstrous _depression_ on the other hemisphere, down which the gradient would start off under the most favourable circumstances possible.