358 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Yol. X. 



These investigations assume additional importance when we 

 view them in connection with solar — I may even say stellar — 

 physics, for evidence is augmenting in favor of the view that in- 

 terstellar space is not empty, but is filled with highly attenuated 

 matter of such a nature as may be put into our vacuum tubes. 

 Nor can the matter occupying stellar space be said to be any longer 

 beyond our reach for chemical and physical test. The spectroscope 

 has already thrown a flood of light upon the chemical constitution 

 and physical condition of the sun, the stars, the comets, and the far 

 distant nebulae, which have yielded spectroscopic photographs 

 under the skilful management of Dr. Huggins, and Dr. Draper, 

 of New York. x\rmed with greatly improved apparatus the 

 physical astronomer has been able to reap a rich harvest of scien- 

 tific information during the short periods of the last two solar 

 eclipses; that of 1879, visible in America, and that of May last, 

 observed in Egyyt by Lockyer, Schuster, and by Continental 

 observers of high standing. The result of this last eclipse expe- 

 dition has been summed up as follows: •• Different temperature 

 levels have been discovered in the solar atmosphere ; the consti- 

 tution of the corona has now the possbility of being determined, 

 and it is proved to shine with its own light. A suspicion has 

 been aroused once more as to the existence of the lunar atmos- 

 phere, and the position of an important line has been discovered. 

 Hydrocarbons do not exist close to the sun, but may in space 

 between us and it." 



To me personally these reported results possess peculiar in- 

 terest, for in March last I ventured to bring before the Royal 

 Society a speculation regarding the conservation of solar en- 

 ergy, which was based upon the three following postulates, 

 viz. : — 



1. That aqueous vapour and carbon compounds are present 

 in stellar or interplanetarj' space. 



2. That these gaseous compounds are capable of being disso- 

 ciated by radiant solar energy while in a state of extreme attenu- 

 ation. 



3. That the effect of solar rotation is to draw in dissociated 

 vapors upon the polar surfaces, and to eject them after combus- 

 tion has taken place back into space equatorially. 



It is therefore a matter of peculiar gratification to me that the 

 results of observation here recorded give considerable support to 

 that speculation. The luminous equatorial extensions of the sun 



