WHAT IS THE SUN MADE OF? 



IF that question had been proposed to any chemist, naturalist, 

 or astronomer, twenty years ago, the reply might have been, 

 6 Who knows V If the chemist, naturalist, or astronomer, 

 had been farther questioned as to his belief whether science 

 of any kind might not probably some day inform us of the 

 sun's composition, he would have assuredly answered, 'No !' 



To have replied otherwise, indeed, would have seemed 

 unsound and ignorant. With what reason could it have been 

 expected that any portion of the sun's materials would reveal 

 their composition to mortal sense ? The moon's composition 

 would have seemed a far more promising subject of inquiry. 

 Occasionally, aerolites or metallic masses fall to us from above. 

 Whence they come is still uncertain. According to one theory, 

 they are assumed to have originally belonged to the moon, 

 and to have been thence projected by volcanic eruptions, so 

 far as to come within reach of the earth's attraction. 



Many of this class of bodies have been collected and ana- 

 lysed. Their constituents have been made known through 

 the direct evidence of chemical analysis; therefore only 

 granting their lunar origin a portion of the moon's consti- 

 tuents will have been revealed. I am aware that most of 

 these aerolites are now supposed to belong to fragmentary 

 asteroids, coursing in planet-like orbits through our solar 

 system ; but the very fact of their having been taken for 

 lunar productions, shows that the materials of the moon's 

 structure were not deemed wholly beyond our observation or 

 comprehension. These fragments only were thought to con- 



