PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 135 
our earth, and we arrived at the further conclusion that 
certain elements existed in the sun’s atmosphere and in the 
atmosphere of stars and in nebule, which had not been so 
far recognised on the earth. One of these, helium, as we 
have seen, has been recently discovered in our own atmo- 
sphere (discovered in the heavens first before it was dis- 
covered on the earth !), and others are now being persistently 
searched for. If they are with us, as we cannot but think 
they are, their discovery is only a question of time. 
Photography has brought us aid of a different. description, 
and of perhaps a still more amazing character. It draws 
these lines for us, and fixes the information in a picture. It 
fixes, not only the lines we can see, but those that are in- 
visible to the human eye. It shows us the invisible by 
second-hand sight. 
What is perhaps still more astonishing is that by its power 
of accumulating faint impressions the sensitive plate can 
build up a picture of stars and systems that are so faint and 
remote as to be the despair of the possible telescope. And 
yet, this faint light comes to us full of information about 
other atmospheres, only some of which messages we have 
learnt so far to read. 
With what a wonderful conception of the universe does it 
leave us! The weary wastes of ether constitute a moving 
manuscript. From every point of space to every other point 
of space information of the most complete description is 
passing by wireless messages. The history of the universe 
is written m ether by the rippling pencils of light and other 
radiant energies. We pride ourselves on the discovery and 
the deciphering of ancient records from Nineveh, or from the 
land of Ur; but what are Nineveh bricks to the manuscript 
of ight that we are receiving on the long-exposed sensitive 
plate, which brings records that may have been printed on 
the ether before man was born upon the earth, it may be— 
who knows!—before the foundations of the earth were laid, 
and which, if the universe is infinite in extent, may be still 
passing on to remoter space after the human race has dis- 
appeared. 
' However ancient these light manuscripts may be; how- 
ever long they may have been on their journey, this we 
know—that they come to us laden with messages out of the 
darkness of space. But light is one form of energy, bring- 
ing one kind of information; how many other forms of 
radiant energy there may be, bringing how many other kinds 
of information, we can only guess. Already we are familiar 
with radiant heat, and with invisible rays above and below 
the visible spectrum ; radiant electrical energy has long been 
