240 THE NEW KNOWLEDGE. 



explanation of the hitherto inexplicable fact that cloud- 

 formation in the upper air varies with the frequency of 

 aurorae. 



METEOKITES AND NEBULAE. 



The number of corpuscles intercepted by the earth is 

 of course infinitesimal compared with those that miss the 

 earth altogether and continue on through interstellar space. 

 Through their immense velocity under the pressure of light 

 we can easily see how they would overcome their electrical 

 repulsions, clash together, condense and form the meteorites 

 which flame through the upper air and occasionally reach 

 the earth itself as " thunder-bolts." We are not even yet 

 at the end of the functional power of the corpuscle. Many 

 of them will escape these traps to strike the nebula and 

 comets. The fact that both nebulaB and comets are cold 

 bodies and yet shine with their own light has always been 

 a perplexing matter. It need be so no longer, for on the 

 impact of a rain of corpuscles the tenuous gaseous mass of 

 a nebula or a comet's tail would of very necessity shine 

 with the same light that we see in the Aurora or a Crookes' 

 tube on earth. 



It is a highly interesting and significant fact that these 

 corpuscles found in candle flames, hot metals, Crookes' 

 tubes and radium, which apparently constitute the very 

 essence of matter and electricity, should also serve to ex- 

 plain, reasonably and adequately, some of the most per- 

 plexing phenomena in the whole range of natural knowledge. 



