1866.] SMALLWOOD — PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 129 



ledge has been revealed within even the few past months, hearing 

 on this subject of spectral analysis. 



The immortal Newton, by means of the prism, resolved light 

 into its ultimate rays in the solar spectrum, a fitting rival to the 

 rainbow. Fraunhofer discovered that this spectrum was tra- 

 versed by numerous dark lines or bands which gave no light or 

 colour, indicating that at the source from whence they emanated, 

 the rays of light were absorbed in their passage from the sun to 

 our earth, and probably some by the earth's atmosphere. More 

 probably some are absorbed in the atmosphere of the sun itself, 

 tor the most recent investigations in this department of physical 

 research have shown that a glowing and gaseous atmosphere 

 surrounds the solid nucleus of the sun, which, possessing a still 

 higher temperature, approaching the intense heat of the brightest 

 whiteness. 



The polarized rays of this light exhibit spectra still more beau- 

 tiful and intense than the solar spectrum itself. Forms of the 

 most symmetrical order are constantly presented when a polarized 

 ray of light is passed through various substances; and these 

 appearances are constantly varied when we change, by means of 

 pressure, the molecular arrangement of these bodies. 



And are we not, by the photographic art, able to preserve, in 

 unfading lines, the lineaments of those we love, of those that are 

 great, and wise, and good ; as well as to transfer to paper, by this 

 process of sun-p tinting, those cherished spots on earth most dear 

 to us, every modulation of the landscape, the familiar dell, and the 

 rippling river by our homes of childhood ? 



But the progressive march of science has not stopped here. 

 The investigations by means of the spectral analysis have pene- 

 trated into those regions of space to which I have already alluded, 

 and the fixed stars have been the objects of intense interest. The 

 astronomers had well said that they were distant suns, like our 

 own, shining by their own light ; and this opinion has been con- 

 firmed by the spectroscope. They are composed of the same matter 

 as our sun; and in the spectra of these stars, the dark lines are 

 wonderfully well brought out and defined. 



Many of the stars of the first magnitude have been subjected to 

 direct experiment ; and it has been shown that they possess in 

 their atmospheres many of our terrestrial elements. Aldebaran, a 

 star of the first magnitude, possesses sodium, magnesium, hydro- 

 gen, calcium, iron, bismult, tellurium, antimony and mercury. 

 Vol. III. I Xo. 2 



