THE POCKET SPECTROSCOPE. 301 



mysterious murder had been committed, and the police had 

 arrested a man who was found near the spot. He could give 

 no intelligible account of himself, and the sleeves of his coat 

 and a part of his waistcoat were deeply stained with a red sub- 

 stance just like clotted blood. A piece of each garment was 

 cut off and given to a well-known spectroscopist, who tried the 

 red matter in the instrument, and at once declared it not to be 

 blood. What it was he had not time to ascertain, so he sent 

 it to a brother in science, who, after examination, pronounced 

 it to be red gum. 



By degrees, the man, who had been intoxicated when arrested, 

 stated that he had been to see a friend who was a journeyman 

 hatter. It was then found that he had been leaning on the 

 workman's board, and so had carried off some of the gum- 

 mastic with which hats are stiffened. Had it not been for the 

 infallible Spectroscope, the man might have lost his life. 



Thus we see that the Spectroscope is the elephant's trunk of 

 optics, equally fitted for the greatest and smallest, the farthest 

 and nearest, of objects. It is equally at home in earth and 

 sky. When attached to the telescope, it reveals the constituents 

 of the stars, and, when affixed to the microscope, it shows 

 us the colouring matter of a green leaf. It produces the best 

 steel, and detects adulteration in wine. And, lastly, as we 

 have seen, it turns lawyer, and settles the evidence by which 

 the life of a man is lost or saved. It can determine the purity 

 of the smallest coinage, and tell us why a star changes in 

 magnitude. 



Yet all these wondrous revelations are made by a few prisms 

 and a magnifying-glass. I possess a Spectroscope, made and 

 presented to me by Mr. J. Browning, the celebrated optician. 

 This astonishing instrument is only three inches long, and 

 half an inch in diameter, so that it can be carried in the waist- 

 coat pocket. I always keep mine in a finger of a white kid 

 glove, which is amply sufficient for it. Yet it gives the spec- 

 trum of the sun with its principal lines, will detect the fraudu- 

 lent wine merchant, and could have decided whether the accused 

 man should be acquitted or hanged. 



MARVELLOUS and mighty as is this engine, it lay concealed 

 in Nature ever since the sun's rays shone upon earth and a drop 



