486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and cents. And so at Harvard the investigations constantly going on 

 in the chemical and physical laboratories, at the Botanic Garden, 

 Agassiz's Museum, and the Observatory, though resulting almost daily 

 in the discovery of new truths, are hardly calculated to awaken popu- 

 lar interest or enthusiasm. 



The labors of Professor Benjamin Peirce, the head of the mathe- 

 matical department, are too extensive to admit of more than a passing 

 mention here. In addition to his private mathematical, physical, and 

 astronomical work, he has entered the field of philosophy in his recent 

 lectures on the connection between religion and science. 



In the last publication of the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 

 ences, in which, by the way, seven of the eight papers are by Harvard 

 investigators, appear the following " Propositions in Cosmical Phys- 

 ics," by Professor Benjamin Peirce : 



1. All stellar light emanates from superheated gas. Hence the 

 sun and stars are gaseous bodies. 



2. Gaseous bodies, in the process of radiating light and heat, con- 

 dense and become hotter throughout their mass. 



3. It is probable that their surface would become colder if there 

 were not an external supply of heat from the collision of meteors. 



4. Large celestial bodies are constantly deriving superficial heat 

 from the collision of meteors, till at length the surface becomes super- 

 heated gas, which constitution must finally extend through the mass. 



5. Small celestial bodies are constantly cooling till they become 

 invisible solid meteors. 



6. The heat of space consists of two parts : first, that of radiation 

 principally from the stars, which is small, except in the immediate 

 vicinity of the stars ; the second portion is derived from the velocity 

 with which the meteors strike the planet at which the observation is 

 taken ; and this velocity partly depends upon the mass of the star by 

 which the orbit of the planet is defined, and partly upon the mass of 

 the planet itself. 



7. If the planets were originally formed by the collision of meteors, 

 it is difficult to account for an initial heat sufficient to liquefy them, 

 and, at the same time, to account for their subsequent cooling without 

 a great change in the number and nature of the meteors ; and any 

 such hypothesis seems to invalidate the meteoric theory. 



8. If the planets were not originally formed by the collision of me- 

 teors, their common direction of rotation becomes difficult of explanation. 



Professor J. M. Peirce has recently published a set of " Mathemati- 

 cal Tables," in which the part relating to " Hyperbolic Functions " is 

 entirely original. Other work in this department is represented by 

 Professor Byerly's " Differential Calculus " and Mr. Wheeler's " Ele- 

 mentary Plane and Spherical Trigonometry." 



The forbidding granite building called " Boylston Hall " conceals 

 scenes of strange activity. Unwonted odors irritate the inexperienced 



