STELLAR ATMOSPHERES. 



47 



more than this, we are also in the presence of high temperature fur- 

 naces, entirely shielded by their vastness from the presence of those 

 distracting phenomena which we are" never free from in the most 

 perfect conditions of experiment we can get here. 



Thanks to the spectroscope, the old guesses have now been replaced 

 by the result of a general inquiry, in which hundreds of thousands of 



eu " '*'"} '''.''''<''.'>. -f 



observations have been used, and for my part I do not think it prob- 

 able that the scheme of celestial evolution which I have sketched above 



