No. 6.] president's address b. a. a. s. 359 



which the American observations revealed in such a striking 

 manDer (with which I was not acquainted when writing my 

 paper), were absent in Egypt; but the outflowing equatorial 

 streams I suppose to exist could only be rendered visible by 

 reflected sunlight, when mixed with dust produced by exceptional 

 solar disturbances or by electric discharge ; and the occasional 

 appearance of such luminous extensions would serve only to dis- 

 prove the hypothesis entertained by some, that they are divided 

 planetary matter, in which case their appearance should be per- 

 manent. Professor Langley, of Pittsburg, has shown by means 

 of his Bolometer, that the solar actinic rays are absorbed chiefly 

 in the solar as in the terrestrial atmosphere, and Captain Abney 

 has found by this new photometric method that absorption due 

 to hydrocarbons takes place somewhere between the solar and the 

 teirestrial atmosphere; in order to test this interesting result still 

 further, he has lately carried his apparatus to the top of the Rifi'el 

 with the view of diminishing the amount of territorial atmospheric 

 air between it and the sun, and intends to bring a paper on this 

 subject before Section A. Stellar space filled with such matter 

 as hydro-carbon and aqueous vapour would establish a material 

 continuity between the sun and his planets, and between the 

 innumerable solar systems of which the universe is composed. If 

 chemical action and reaction can further be admitted, we may 

 be able to trace certain conditions of thermal dependence and 

 maintenance, in which we may recognise principles of high per- 

 fection, applicable also to comparatively humble purposes of 

 humble life. 



We shall thus find that in the great worksliop of nature there 

 are no lines of demarcation to be drawn between the most exalted 

 speculation and common-place practice, and that all knowledge 

 must lead up to one great result, that of an intelligent recogni- 

 tion of the Creator through His works. So then, we members of 

 the British Association and fellow-workers in every branch of 

 science may exhort one another in the words of the American 

 bard who has so lately departed from amongst us : — 



' Let us then be up and doing, 



With a heart for any fate ; 

 Still achieving, still pursuing. 

 Learn to labour and to wait. 



