44 
Artic.e III. 
Memoir on the Solar Heat, on the Radiating and Absorbing 
Powers of the Atmospheric Air, and on the Temperature of 
Space. By M. Pouituet, Member of the Royal Academy of 
Sciences of Paris, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the 
Faculty of Sciences, &c. 
[From the Comptes Rendus des Séances de Académie des Sciences, 
July the 9th, 1838. ] 
THE object of this memoir is—the quantity of solar heat 
which falls perpendicularly, in a given time, on a given surface :— 
the proportion of this heat which is absorbed by the atmosphere 
in the vertical passage :—the law of absorption for different ob 
liquities :—the total quantity of heat which the earth receives 
from the sun in the course of a year :—the total quantity of heat 
which is emitted at each instant by the whole surface of the sun: 
—the elements which must be known in order to ascertain whe- 
ther the mass of the sun cools gradually from century to cen 
tury, or whether there is a cause destined to reproduce the quan- 
tities of heat which escape incessantly from it:—the elements 
which would allow its temperature to be determined :—the ab- 
solute quantity of heat emitted by a body whose surface, tem- 
perature and radiating power are known :—the laws of cooling 
of a body which loses its heat without receiving any :—the ge- 
neral conditions of equilibrium of temperature of a body pro- 
tected by a diathermanous covering analogous to the atmosphere : 
—the cause of the cooling of the high regions of the air:—the 
law of that cooling :—the temperature of space :—the tempera- 
ture which would be observable everywhere on the surface of 
the earth if the sun’s action was not felt :—the elevation of tem- 
perature which results from the solar heat :—the relation of the 
quantities of heat which the earth receives from the sun, and from 
space or all the other celestial bodies. 
It is difficult to give a brief account of the whole of these 
researches: I must therefore be excused both for the length of 
this abstract and the conciseness with which many of the pro- 
positions are presented. I regret to be unable here to go more 
fully into the subject, and especially that I cannot review the 
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