174 INORGANIC EVOLUTION. [CHAP. XXII. 



inorganic life represented by the various chemical changes in the 

 stars. 



We know from laboratory results that the stars of lowest tem- 

 perature are about the same temperature as that of the electric 

 arc, which is about 3,500 C., and so we put the Piscian stars there. 

 It has also been stated by Mr. Wilson lately, that the temperature of 

 the sun, measured by several physical methods, is something between 

 8,000 and 9,000 C., so that we put there the Arcturian stars. Of 

 course we have no means of determining the temperatures of the 

 hotter stars, so 1 have ventured to make a very modest supposition 

 that possibly we get about half the difference of temperature between 

 those stars as we have found between the Piscian and the Arcturian 

 stars from experiments on the earth. That will give us, roughly, some- 

 thing like 5,000 C. We find, then, that if we assume equal increments 

 of temperature for each of the different genera of stars that I have 

 brought together in Chapter VII, we get a temperature at the top of 

 the diagram of something like 28,000 C. All we have to do, then, is 

 to draw a diagonal line on which to mark the various temperatures 

 considered. On this the organic evolution, which represents every- 

 thing which has taken place with regard to living forms on the surface 

 of our planet from the pre-Laurentian times to our own, is represented 

 by a small dot. 



It looks, therefore, very much as if these recent results of spectrum 

 analysis, may probably be of greater value in the future, because they 

 deal with a multitude of changes and a period of time compared 

 with which all the changes discussed by the geologists are almost 

 invisible on a diagram of this size. Not only shall we have probably 

 some help in determining this scale, but I think that, as I have already 

 indicated, the wonderful similarity between the substances contained 

 in the organic cell and those which would most likely be free when 

 the greatest amount of chemical combination had taken place on 

 the surface of the cooling world, will throw some light on the basis 

 of organic evolution itself. 



In this way, then, we have really been only continuing a train of 

 thought, which has to do with Man's Place in Nature, in relation 

 to the Sun's Place in Nature ; and finding fresh grounds for thinking 

 that the more different branches of science are studied and allowed to 

 react on each other, the more the oneness of Nature impresses itself 

 upon the mind. 



