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Foulke, William D. Slav or Saxon. A Study 

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Kelley. Hon. William D. The Old South and 

 the New. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

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Muir, M. M. Pattison, and Slater, Charles. Ele- 

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Saintsbury,. George. A History of Elizabethan 

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Horuadav, William T. Free Rum on the Congo, 

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Everett, J. D. Outlines of Natural Philosophy. 

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POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Mr. lockycr's Theory of "The Cos- 

 mos." — Mr. Lockyer has presented, in a pa- 

 per to the Royal Society on the " Spectra of 

 Meteorites," a new hypothesis concerning 

 the origin and nature of the stars and other 

 celestial bodies. Among the fundamental 

 propositions of his theory are those that 

 all self-luminous todies in the celestial 

 spaces are composed of meteorites, or mass- 

 es of meteoric vapor, produced by heat 

 brought about by condensation of meteor 

 swarms due to gravity; that the spectra of 

 all bodies depend upon the beat of the me- 

 teorites, produced by collisions, and the 

 average space between the meteorites in the 

 swarm, or in the case of consolidated 



swarms, upon the time which has elapsed 

 since complete vaporization ; that the ex- 

 isting distinction between stars, comets, and 

 ncbulaa rests on no physical basis ; and that 

 the main factor in the various spectra pro- 

 duced is the ratio of the interspaces between 

 the meteorites to their incandescent sur- 

 faces. These, with other propositions of 

 more detailed and specific character, are sus- 

 tained by results of spectroscopic examina- 

 tions of meteorites and of various sub- 

 stances, which are described particularly. 

 Experiments prosecuted for fourteen years 

 have shown that the luminous phenomena 

 manifested by the several classes of heaven- 

 ly bodies can be reproduced in the labora- 

 tory by subjecting meteorites, as far as pos- 

 sible, to conditions similar to those assumed 

 by the hypothesis to exist in space. Thus, 

 the reproduction of the spectrum of the sun 

 by the fusion of meteorites in the voltaic 

 arc accords with the supposition that it is 

 the result of the condensation to the point 

 of complete volatihzation of an originally 

 sparse swarm of meteorites. The spectra of 

 comets when near the sun give the lines of 

 a meteoric body glowing in a dense atmos- 

 phere given off by itself when highly heated ; 

 while at their greatest observed distances 

 from the sun their spectra are identical with 

 those of the nebulas, which are supposed by 

 the hypothesis to be "closely associated 

 with a meteorite glowing very gently in a 

 very tenuous atmosphere given off by it- 

 self." Hence nebulae are supposed to be 

 sparse clusters of associated meteorites, and 

 their luminous phenomena to be due to the 

 glow of gases which result from collisions 

 between the individuals of the group. Com- 

 ets are nebulce whose proper motions have 

 brought them within the range of the sun's 

 attraction; but when outside of his more 

 immediate influence they exhibit no phe- 

 nomena which are not also exhibited by neb- 

 ulae. The next stage of approximation is 

 exhibited by stars designated as of Class Ilia, 

 and is due to the attraction of gravity 

 among the individual meteorites of the 

 swarm ; and the succeeding stages are in- 

 dicated by the increasing complexity of the 

 spectra, whether of the meteorite itself ren- 

 dered incandescent by collision of the va- 

 pors by which it is immediately surrounded, 

 or of the general interspace between me- 



