From what has been said, it is very evident that neither Hansen, Chambers, Proctor, nor any of those whose names have been mentioned by the last, in connexion with the withdrawal of water into the body of the moon by absorption, while cooling and condensing, had ever thought of the possibility of air and water having been removed by centrifugal force from the side of the moon turned towards the earth. That it should not have occurred to Hansen seems passing strange, seeing that he had conceived the idea of their possible existence on the hemisphere turned away from the earth, which could hardly fail to make him think of how they got there, and could exist only there; and the only explanation of his not having perceived the true cause seems to be, that his thoughts were hampered by a sort of confused notion that the moon actually rotates on its axis once for every revolution it makes around the earth, that being, as it were, one of the dogmas of astronomic belief, handed down from some great authority of times past, and never properly inquired into.
We do not want to question the suggestion, that the absence of any atmosphere investing the moon is a simple and necessary consequence of the kinetic theory of gases--though we see that a good deal could be argued against it--as we do not consider it to be necessary--neither the questioning nor the theory. We have demonstrated clearly, how both air and water could be removed from the side of the moon constantly shown to us, and that is sufficient for our purpose both now and later on; besides it would appear that the moon really has some sort of an atmosphere somewhere.
Following up the quotation, made at page 39, from Prince Kropotkin's article in the "Nineteenth Century" as being the latest information we have on the subject, we are told that "a feeble twilight is seen on our satellite, and twilight is due, as is known, to the reflection of light within the gaseous envelope; besides it has been remarked long since at Greenwich that the stars which are covered by the moon during its movements in its orbit remain visible for a couple of seconds longer than they ought to be visible if their rays were not slightly broken as they pass near the moon's surface. Consequently it was concluded that the moon must have an atmosphere" ... and: