216 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Ski 



, 11, 1885. 



therefore (supposing tliat nebula a, galaxy like our own 

 in size) the distance of the outskirts of our galaxy from 

 as, more than 450 times. This would correspond to a dimi- 

 nution in the lustre of individual stars more than 200,000 

 times. Now Herschel had to withdraw from the sui-vey 

 <if the remotest parts of our galaxy, or at any rate the 

 least resolvable parts (for my own interpretation of their 

 irresolvability does not assume great distance as a neces- 

 siry point), satisfied, as he said, that those depths are 

 unfathomable. Irresolvable nebulosity foiled his most 

 powerful telescopes, within the limits of our own stellar 

 domain. How preposterous then, when considered a 

 little, the belief that the same telescope which failed to 

 i-esolve the outskirts of our own galaxy, can bring into 

 view individual stars having less than the 200,000th part 

 of the light of those remoter suns of our stellar system. 



Mr. Herbert Spencer pointed out another fatal objec- 

 tion, in Sir W. Herschel's own account of the arrange- 

 ment of the stellar and nebular groupings. For Herschel 

 .Slid that whenever he found his star gauges running 

 poor, he would call out to his elder sister. Miss Caroline 

 Herschel, who acted as his assistant, "Prepare to write, 

 nebula^ are about to appear." This peculiarity of arrange- 

 ment by which nebulae fit in where stars are spai-sely 

 .strewn, and vice versd, must be regarded as proof positive 

 of the association between nebute and stars. Nebuloe 

 niust belong then to our galaxy. 



I mj'self collected some forty pieces of evidence as to 

 the structvire of our galaxy, by which as I believe the old- 

 fashioned theory (in favour of which not a single direct 

 ai-gument has ever been adduced) was shown to be 

 absolutely untenable. I may remark in passing that I 

 propose to publish in the first monthly number of the 

 new series of Knowledge a letter which I addressed to 

 Sir John Herschel in 1870, wherein the greater number 

 of the arguments on which the objections to the old 

 theory are based were briefly indicated. In the second 

 number of that series I propose to publish his singularly 

 interesting reply to that communication. I feel that the 

 t ime has come to make known precisely how that great 

 astronomer viewed the questionings then being addressed 

 to the theory with which — not quite correctly — his own 

 name and his father's have been associated. 



But while Mr. Spencer's objections (of themselves) 

 •sufficed to demonstrate the utterly untenable nature of 

 the theory of galaxies of stars external to our own 

 .stellar system ; and my own more laboured gathering of 

 evidence on the subject should have left no doiibt, even 

 in the minds of those hist ready to recognise the force of 

 [•easoning in such matters, the great nebula in Andromeda 

 was in some degree outside our evidence. 



The Andromeda nebula is not gaseous but manifestly 

 .stellar ; yet it has not been resolved into stars. Nor had 

 it been jJossible to show how far the nebula was from 

 resolvability. Some, using very powerful telescopes on 

 t he nebula supposed they had come very near to resolving 

 it into discrete stars ; but tliey could not feel sure on 

 .such a point. For anything yet shown, telescopes a 

 thousand times more powerful than the great Rosse 

 telescope (imagined for the moment as perfect in defining 

 power) might have failed to resolve the Andromeda 

 nebiila into stars. 



Therefore Mr. Herbert Spencer's first objection, fatal 

 against all resolved or partly-resolvable nebula?, had no 

 fatal force (it had considerable force however) against 

 the Andromeda nebula. Of course the other objection 

 had no force at all if this nebula is once regarded as 

 exceptional. Among all my own objections against the 

 theory of external galaxies, few had much force against 



1 certainly none were abso- 



L,Teat agglomeration of un- 



1 icing an external galaxy. 



.lly be said, t1io question is 



imot possibly 1m .,., ■ m, iinl 



qucsic v ; \ -■ '' ' 



disposed of. A stiir- 

 galaxy resembling c 

 suddenly a star wlici-c no star had l" ' I n 



Were the Andromeda nebula such a l::iI i , , i lii(li;ii,_;c 

 which has recently taken j.lacc in it (or to" speuk more 

 precisely, the change of which the light-broxight news has 

 recently reached us) ^nuld correspond to such a change 

 in our galaxy as would alter it.s whole cliinMoter. A 

 star millions of times larger than anj- i>ili in '-uv i_i:il i\-y 

 would have to be present in it — to begin \\ ii li un 1 i lien 

 after being so dull as to give no more li^Ui tli:iii an 

 ordinary sun — would have to blaze out suddenly with 

 hundreds of thousands of times as much light even as 

 the splendid Sirius pours forth, to produce such a change 

 of aspect in our galaxy, supposed to be seen from the 

 distance of the Andromeda nebula, as has actually taken 

 place in that star-cloud. 



The theory that the star-clouds, or any of them, are 

 external galaxies has received a death-blow. This is not 

 saying it was not dead before. The blow may be such a 

 one as FalstafE gave the dead Percy : but no one can 

 mistake its force. With this new wound the theory has 

 no longer even the semblance of life, and will possibly 

 disappear ere long from tho.se cemeteries for defunct 

 theories, the text-books ! 



SELF-INHIBIATIOX. 



A COXTEIBUTION TO HUMAN HIBERNATION. 

 By De. W. Cueean. 



STORIES appear every now and then in the papers 

 about priests and other holy members of the Hindu 

 or Mahommedan religions burying themselves alive, for 

 penitential or spectacular purposes, in India. That 

 many of these are exaggerated — cresciint cuiulo — while 

 others arc as undoubtedly true, goes without saying, and 

 the ratioNnh: of all is so little understood in these colder 

 latitudes that it may be as well to say a word or two, by 

 way of introduction to what follows, about it. These 

 practices would, indeed, be otherwise unintelligible, 

 so outre or impracticible do thej- appear, and the atmo- 

 sphere of India, charged as it is with miracle and fable, 

 is jieculiarly suited for displays of this kind. Vicarious 

 suffering or expiation has, moreover, been ever a favourite 

 mode of currying favour with the Deity in that country. 

 Pilgrimages and offerings of all kinds are just as accept- 

 able at the shrines of Allah and Budh as they are at 

 those of Vishnu and Siva, and self-destruction, for an 

 incurable malady or other deprivation or calamity, is 

 expressly sanctioned in one of the holiest of the Hindu 

 Shastres.* 



" The invasion of the Punjab by Alexander in B.C. 327 



* " The Bramah Pooranee expressly directs as follows," says 

 Ward in Lis view of the History, Literature, and Eeligion of 

 Hindoos, p. 125 :— " Let the man who is afflicted with a grievous 

 and incnrable disease enter a burning fire, or procure his death by 

 starvation, or by plunging into unfathomable waters, or by pre- 

 cipitating himself from an eminence, or by ascending to Paradise 

 by a respectful pilgrimage to the Himalayan mountains. Whoever 

 relinquishes Ufe or destroys himself (under these circumstances), 

 that high-minded person shall receive a great reward in a future 

 state, and shall not be considered a suicide. Even although he 

 may have been a great sinner, he shall meet with supreme bliss in 

 Paradise." 



