1867.] HUNT — THE CHEMISTRY OF THE EARTH. 225 



ON THE CHEMISTRY OF THE PRIMEVAL EARTH. 



Bv T. Sterrt Hunt, LL.D.. P.K.S.* 



The natural history of our planet, to which we give the name 

 of geology, is, necessarily, a very complex science, including, as it 

 does, the concrete sciences of mineralogy, of botany and zoology, 

 and the abstract sciences chemistry and physics. These latter 

 sustain a necessary and very important relation to the whole 

 process of development of our earth, from its earliest ages, and 

 we find that the same chemical laws which have presided over its 

 changes, apply also to those of extra-terrestrial matter. Recent 

 investigations show the presence in the sun, and even in the fixed 

 stars — suns of other systems — the same chemical elements as in 

 our own planet. The spectroscope, that marvellous instrument, 

 has, in the hands of modern investigators, thrown new light upon 

 the composition of the farthest bodies of the universe, and has 

 made clear many points which the telescope was impotent to 

 resolve. The results of extra-terrestrial spectroscopic research 

 have lately been set forth in an admirable manner by one of its 

 most successful students, Mr. Huggins. We see, by its aid, matter 

 in all its stages, and trace the process of condensation and the 

 formation of worlds. It is long since Herschel, the first of his 

 illustrious name, conceived the nebulae, which his telescope could 

 not resolve, to be the uncondensed matter from which worlds are 

 made. Subsequent astronomers, with more powerful glasses, were 

 able to show that many of these nebulae are really groups of stars, 

 and thus a doubt was thrown over the existence in space of nebulous 

 luminous matter; but the spectroscope has now placed the matter 

 beyond doubt. By its aid, we find in the heavens, planets, bodies 

 like our earth, shining only by reflected light ; suns, self luminous, 

 radiating light from solid matter ; and, moreover, true nebulae, or 

 masses of luminous gaseous matter. These three forms represent 

 three distinct phases in the condensation of the primeval matter, 

 from which our own and other planetary systems have been formed. 



This nebulous matter is conceived to be so intensely heated as 

 to be in the state of true gas or vapour, and, for this reason, feebly 



* Keport of a lecture delivered before the Royal Institution of Great 

 Britain, London, May 31st, 1867, and reprinted from the Proceeding of 

 the Royal Institution. 

 Vol. III. O No. 3 



