176 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



light cometary matter floating about within the limits 

 of our solar system. . . . Hydrogen has been recog- 

 nised in the spectrum analysis of the light of the fixed 

 stars by Messrs. Huggins and Miller. The same gas 

 constitutes, according to the wide researches of Father 

 Secchi, the principal elements of a numerous class of 

 stars, of which Alpha Lyrae is the type. The iron of 

 Lenarto has, no doubt, come from such an atmosphere 

 in which hydrogen greatly prevailed. This meteorite 

 may be looked upon as holding imprisoned within it 

 and bearing to us the hydrogen of the stars.' 



I do not indeed suppose that all meteors have had 

 an origin of this sort. It is almost impossible to ex- 

 amine the facts which have been made known respect- 

 ing meteors without arriving at the conclusion that no 

 inconsiderable proportion of these bodies have not as 

 yet formed part of any of the more massive orbs which 

 are spread throughout the realms of space. It would 

 seem as though two processes were simultaneously at 

 work. On the one hand, there is an aggregating 

 process, by which meteoric matter is brought to the 

 surface of orbs, such as the sun and his fellow suns, our 

 earth and other planets, the moon and other orbs which, 

 like her, circle around the members of our own and 

 other solar systems. On the other, there seems to be 

 a process of rejection by which meteoric matter is con- 

 tinually being projected from the substance of the sun 

 and the countless millions of other suns which consti- 

 tute our galactic system. 



I may remark, in passing, that it is not as yet 



