Worlds in the making: The evolution of the universe

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
The cover was prepared by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE
BY SVANTE ARRHENIUS DIRECTOR OF THE PHYSICO-CHEMICAL NOBEL INSTITUTE, STOCKHOLM
TRANSLATED BY DR. H. BORNS
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS MCMVIII
Copyright, 1908, by Harper & Brothers. All rights reserved. Published March, 1908.
EXPLANATION OF ABBREVIATIONS, ETC.
The temperatures are stated in degrees centigrade (° C.), either on the Celsius scale, on which the freezing-point of water is 0°, or on the absolute scale, whose zero lies 273 degrees below the freezing-point of water, at -273° C. The equivalent temperatures on the Fahrenheit scale (freezing-point of water 32° F.) are added in brackets (° F.).
1 metre (m.) = 10 decimetres (dm.) = 100 centimetres (cm.) = 1000 millimetres (mm.) = 3.28 ft.; 1 kilometre (km.) = 1000 metres (m.) = 0.62 miles; 1 mile = 1.6 kilometres (km.).
Light travels in vacuo at the rate of 300,000 km. (nearly 200,000 miles) per second.