METEORIC ASTRONOMY. 107 



We must count such comets, and such rings filled with 

 attendant fragments, not merely by tens or hundreds, but 

 by thousands and tens of thousands, even by millions; the 

 path of the earth being but a thread in space, and yet a 

 hundred or two are strung upon it. 



In this article Mr. Proctor seems strongly disposed to 

 return to the theory which attributes solar heat and light 

 to a bombardment of meteors from without, and the solar 

 corona and zodiacal light as visible presentments of these 

 meteors. Still, however, he clings to the more recent ex- 

 planation which regards the corona, the zodiacal light, and 

 the meteors as matter ejected from the sun by the same 

 forces as those producing the solar prominences. For my 

 own part I shall not be at all surprised if we find that, ere 

 long, these two apparently conflicting hypotheses are fully 

 reconciled. 



The progress of solar discovery has been so great since 

 January, 1870, when my eject! on theory was published, that 

 I may now carry it out much further than I then dared, or 

 was justified in daring to venture. Actual measurement 

 of the projectile forces displayed in some of the larger 

 prominences renders it not merely possible, but even very 

 probable, that some of the exceptionally great eruptive 

 efforts of the sun may be sufficiently powerful to eject solar 

 material beyond the reclaiming reach of his own gravitating 

 power. 



In such a case the banished matter must go on wander- 

 ing through the boundless profundity of space until it 

 reaches the domain of some other sun, which will clutch 

 the fragment with its gravitating energies, and turn its 

 straight and ever onward course into the curved orbit. 

 Thus the truant morsel from our sun will become the sub- 

 ject of another sun a portion of another solar system. 



What one sun may do, another and every other may do 

 likewise, and, if so, there must be a mutual bombardment, 

 a ceaseless interchange of matter between the countless 

 suns of the universe. This is a startling view of our cosmi- 

 cal relations, but we arc driving rapidly towards a general 

 recognition of it. 



The November star showers have perpetrated some irreg- 



