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



origin of ponderable or ordinary matter, the absolute synthesis of which 

 from its imponderable elements is thus believed to take place in the Sun. 



It will follow that the distribution of heat in the Sun, as already in- 

 ferred by the author*, is from within to without, in the order of decreas- 

 ing intensity an inference which he conceives to be not contradicted, but 

 supported, by the apparently inferior calorific and luminous condition of 

 the Sun's nucleus, as disclosed in the true nuclei or inner umbrae of the 

 spots, compared to that of every other visible part of the Sun, and espe- 

 cially of the photosphere, because the exterior regions of the Sun are com- 

 posed entirely of that order of matter ponderable matter, such as that of 

 which the planets consist which is alone capable of communicating to the 

 ether of space those vibrations which we know as heat and light. 



The " Cause and Nature of the Phenomena termed the Solar Spots" 

 are next considered. The energy arising from the transition of imp^onder- 

 able into ponderable matter, will in part become the centrifugal or projec- 

 tile force by which the torrents of matter (finally assuming the gaseous 

 form) so produced are impelled through the denser envelopes of the Sun, 

 causing the spots and the other phenomena of ebullition of which the pho- 

 tosphere is the scene. 



The rotation of the Sun acting upon these torrents issuing radially from 

 its interior regions and probably from the surface of the solar globe dis- 

 closed in the true nuclei of the spots, or somewhat within that by in- 

 flecting them towards the Sun's equator as they rise, occasions the actual 

 distribution of the spots which are their outbursts on the surface of the 

 photosphere, in lines and belts parallel to the equator, their restriction in 

 latitude to within a certain distance of it, and their absence, together 

 with that of the faculce, both in the equatorial and the polar regions 

 of the Sun. It would seem that the originally uniform evolution of aeri- 

 form matter from the entire surface of the interior globe, on being swept 

 towards the equator from each pole, is broken up into torrents by the same 

 general cause, and by the resulting inequalities of temperature, density, and 

 consequent resistance in the surrounding and incumbent mediums. The 

 region of equatorial calm, or freedom from spots and faculse, is the result 

 of the meeting and mutual opposition of the systems of currents which 

 the Sun's rotation causes to proceed from either pole, the torrents being 

 carried back in each hemisphere by movements of the nature of circular 

 waves of translation seemingly affecting all the envelopes of the Sun, and 

 setting from the plane of junction at the equator towards the tropics. 



The entire assemblage of actions now under consideration appears to be 

 closely analogous to that exhibited by a liquid boiling violently and inces- 

 santly from a heated surface below, the gaseous matter evolved at which 

 becomes partly diffused through the liquid by adhesion or mixture, is partly 

 disseminated through it in bubbles which collapse at various depths, and 

 partly escapes by effervescence at its upper surface. In the actual case of 

 * Companion to the Almanac for 1804, p. 51. 



