LO? CELESTIAL SPECTROSCOPY. 
by Mr. Boys; and observations of the variation of the moon’s heat 
with its phase by Mr. Frank Very. The discovery of the ultra-violet 
part of the hydrogen spectrum, not in the laboratory, but from the 
stars. The confirmation of this spectrum by terrestrial hydrogen in 
part by H. W. Vogel, and in its all but complete form by Cornu, who 
found similar series in the ultra-violet spectra of aluminium and thal- 
lium. The discovery of a simple formula for the hydrogen series by 
Balmer. The important question as to the numerical spectral relation- 
ship of different substances, especially in connection with their chem- 
ical properties; and the further question as to the origin of the har- 
monie and other relations between the lines and the groupings of lines 
of spectra; on these points contributions during the past year have 
been made by Rudolf vy. Kovesligethy, Ames, Hartley, Deslandres, 
Rydberg, Griinwald, Kayser and Runge, Johnstone Stoney, and others. 
The remarkable employment of interference phenomena by Prof. Mich- 
elson for the determination of the size, and distribution of light within 
them, of the images of objects which when viewed in a telescope sub- 
tend an angle less than that subtended by the light wave at a distance 
equal to the diameter of the objective. A method applicable not alone 
to celestial objects, but also to spectral lines, and other questions of 
molecular physics. 
Along the older lines there has not been less activity; by newer 
methods, by the aid of larger or more accurately constructed instru- 
ments, by greater refinement of analysis, knowledge has been increased, 
especially in precision and minute exactness. 
Astronomy, the oldest of the sciences, has more than renewed her 
youth. At no time in the past has she been so bright with unbounded 
aspirations and hopes. Never were her temples so numerous nor the 
crowd of her votaries so great. The British Astronomical Association 
formed within the year numbers already about 600 members. Happy 
is the lot of those who are still on the eastern side of life’s meridian. 
Already, alas! the original founders of the newer nethods are falling 
out—Kirchhoff, Angstrém, D’Arrest, Secchi, Draper, Becquerel; but 
their places are more than filled; the pace of the race is gaining, but 
the goal is not and never will be in sight. 
Since the time of Newton our knowledge of the phenomena of nature 
has wonderfully increased, but man asks, perhaps more earnestly now 
than in his days, What is the ultimate reality behind the reality of the 
perceptions? Are they only the pebbles of the beach with which we 
have been playing? Does not the ocean of ultimate reality and truth 
hie beyond? 
rel 
