Masterpieces of Science 



Now, we notice at once how importantly these 

 researches into the sun's structure bear upon 

 the subject of this treatise. It would be indeed 

 interesting to consider the actual condition of 

 the central orb of the planetary scheme, to pic- 

 ture in imagination the metallic oceans which 

 exist upon his surface, the continual evaporation 

 from these oceans, the formation of metallic 

 clouds, and the downpour of metallic showers 

 upon the surface of the sun. But apart from 

 such considerations, and viewing Kirchhoff's 

 discoveries simply in their relation to the subject 

 of other worlds, we have enough to occupy our 

 attention. 



If it could be shown that, in all probability, 

 the substance of the sun consists of materials 

 wholly different from those which exist in this 

 earth, the conclusion obviously to be drawn from 

 such a discovery would be that the other planets 

 also are differently constituted. We could not 

 find any just reason for believing that in Jupiter 

 or Mars there exist the elements with which we 

 are acquainted, when we found that even the 

 central orb of the planetary system exhibits no 

 such feature of resemblance to the earth. But 

 now that we know quite certainly that the 

 familiar elements iron, sodium and calcium exist 

 in the sun's substance, while we are led to believe, 

 with almost perfect assurance, that all the ele- 

 ments we are acquainted with also exist there, 

 we see at once that in all probability the other 

 planets are constituted in the same way. There 

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