The analogy from fluids flowing through an orifice fails, because—
1. The particles of the fluid are acted on by forces other than their mutual attractions, and in many cases affecting them unequally, e. g., friction against the sides of the containing vessel and the orifice.
2. Because the orifice is not a point, but a finite area, and consequently the particles of the fluid are acted on by forces which do not pass through the same point.
Considered then as a substitute for the action of an intelligent Creator, Laplace's theory utterly breaks down in three points, which, as they will have to be referred to hereafter, it is well to recapitulate.
1. It does not account for the origin of matter.
2. It does not account for the emergence of the force of attraction.
3. It does not give a satisfactory account for the motion of rotation.
CHAPTER IV.
DIFFICULTIES IN PHYSIOLOGY.
The third science which is supposed to come into collision with the Mosaic Record is Physiology. Here, however, we meet with no objections which rest upon ascertained facts, as in the case of geology. We have only to do with theories. All that can be brought forward is merely matter of opinion or theory—such theory resting indeed on a foundation of ascertained facts—but being in itself a mere inference more or less probable from those facts. Even if it were proved to be a true account of the causation of those facts, it would be by no means certain that other facts, however similar, might not have had a totally different origin.