The Evolution of the Sciences 



for a long time a question whether all nebulae 

 could not be resolved into stars, by the use 

 of sufficient powers of magnification. The use 

 of the spectroscope has supplied a definite 

 answer to this question, and the glory of this 

 discovery belongs to the English astronomer, 

 Huggins. Huggins showed in 1864 that certain 

 nebulae, seen through the spectroscope, give the 

 continuous spectrum crossed by black lines 

 which characterises the sun, the stars, and 

 matter already condensed, whereas the spectrum 

 of others consists of bright lines on a dark 

 background; that is to say, the spectrum of 

 matter in a state of gas or vapour. The nebulae 

 of this class, which no telescope can ever resolve, 

 appear to constitute the primordial form of 

 * matter in course of condensation, the gigantic 

 ovum from which the stars were developed. 



These views, so consonant with the cosmo- 

 gonical theories of Kant and Laplace, have 

 recently received some remarkable confirmations. 

 Huggins, while studying the spectrum of certain 

 stars of Orion, discovered bright lines extending 

 into the nebula which surrounds these stars. 



Orion might therefore appear to be a nebula 



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