120 Mr. Brayley Inferences and Suggestions in [Mar. 23, 



I. " Inferences and Suggestions in Cosmical and Geological Philo- 

 sophy." ByE.W. BRAYLEY, F.E.S. Received February 23, 1865. 



Theory of the Sun Synthesis of Ponderable Matter in the Sun Cause of the Solar 

 Spots Production of the Zodiacal Light Origin of Meteorites Original Formation 

 of the Planets Discrimination of the Views in Cosmical Philosophy advanced from 

 those of Mayer and his School Theory of the Minor Planets Projectile Power of 

 the Sun. 



(Abstract.) 



This paper commences with the " Theory of the Sun," embracing the 

 subjects of the source of its energies, and the synthesis of ponderable 

 matter. The position, powers, and functions of the Sun, as the physical 

 centre of the solar system, are peculiar, and in fact unique. The " Pri- 

 mary Induction" from them, indicating, in the author's opinion, "the 

 principle of philosophical investigation" which should be applied to the 

 Sun, is conceived to be " That they imply a corresponding uniqueness and 

 peculiarity in its constitution, characterizing also the nature as well as the 

 disposition of the substances of which it essentially consists. But the 

 particular density of the Sun indicates that it actually consists both of 

 ponderable and imponderable matter. The nature of the former as con- 

 stituting apparently its relatively exterior regions [is] believed to be made 

 known in part by Professor Kirchhoff's researches in Prismatic Chemistry 

 applied to the Sun, as showing that some of the elementary substances of 

 the Earth exist also in the Sun" *. 



The first obvious verification of this primary induction is presented by 

 the " form of the Sun, which according to the observation of the equality 

 of its diameters, is that of a perfect sphere, a form which is unique in the 

 solar system, and is probably unknown in Terrestrial Nature"*. 



The cardinal peculiarity of the Sun, that in which it is unique in the 

 highest sense, is that its radiation exclusively possesses the property of 

 imparting to (inorganic) matter a fit condition for the manifestation of 

 (organic) life ; that it is, humanly speaking, infinite in amount, and also the 

 source of all the heat and light, and consequently of all their derivative or 

 correlate forces which are active in the solar system. The illustration of 

 the temperature and expenditure of heat of the Sun founded by Sir John 

 F. W. Herschel upon his own experiments and those of M. Pouillet, with 

 Mr. Waterston's experimental result that the potential temperature of an 

 infinitesimal area of the Sun's radiating surface is nearly thirteen millions 

 of degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer, are cited as being in fact nothing 

 more than philosophical confessions that no proportion whatever can be 

 established between any expression for the solar energies and the obvious 

 reality of their incalculable amount. 



The author proceeds to inquire what we may reasonably conceive to be 



* Syllabus of Lectures on Astronomical Physics, delivered at the London Institution 

 in 1864, here cited from a revised edition printed for private use. Lecture V. 



