ABSTRACT
Sir James Jeans has long been known to the world of mathematicians and to mathematical physicists, but it is only recently that he became known to the general public through his admirable book, The Universe Around Us. The book begins with a biography of the sun, one might almost say an epitaph. It seems that not more than one star in about one hundred thousand has planets, but that some two thousand million years ago the sun had the good fortune to have a fruitful meeting with another star, which led to the existing planetary offspring. The argument is, of course, not set out with the formal precision which Sir James would demand in a subject not involving his emotions. Apart from all detail, he has been guilty of a fundamental fallacy in confusing the realms of pure and applied mathematics.
