80 



♦ KNOV/LEDGE ♦ 



[Jax. 1, 1886. 



exception to this, but I have not j-et heard of any. So 

 intimately are they connected that the most remarkable 

 example is frequently described as " Boghead Cannel," 

 and a great law.suit (Gillespie v. Russell) was fiercely 

 fought in Edinburgh to determine whether it is coal or 

 not coal. The landlord of Torbane Hill (Gillespie) granted 

 a lease of all the eoal on the estate to be worked by 

 Russell. The mineral in question proved to be of far 

 greater value than ordinary coal, on account of its yield- 

 ing the paraffin series on distillation. At this date (1853) 

 the Americans had not " struck ile," and the paraffin oil 

 now selling at about 9d. per gallon in this country, was 

 worth .3s. 6d. jier gallon here, and even more in America. 

 The Torbane Hill mineral was exported to the United 

 States for the distillation of Kerosine there. Russell was 

 consequently making a magnificent income, which excited 

 the cupidity of his landlord, who denied that the lease 

 gave a right to work this mineral, on the ground that it 

 is not coal, and he proceeded accordingly. 



I was living in Edinburgh at the time, an 1 followed 

 the proceedings with much interest. Geologist-, chemists, 

 microscopists, &c., were imported from all par:s cf Europe 

 by both litigants, one set to swear that it wa> coal, the 

 other to swea,r the opposite. I was then youi/er and 

 greener th-.n I am at present, and had a correspondingly 

 profound respect for such titular appendages as F.R.S., 

 itc, than I now have. My simple-minded faith received 

 a painful shock on noting that all the distinguished 

 fellows, graduates, and even professors who were sub- 

 poenaed (and paid) by Gillespie, found that the mineral 

 in question was not coal, and all engaged in like manner 

 by Russell discovered, on purely scientific grounds, that 

 it was coal. 



The best hotels of the cit}- were filled with these dis- 

 tinguished men, and Edinburgh was in quite a britishasso- 

 ciationish state of scientific gala. Preparations were 

 made, reports, proofs, and briefs were prepared, and all 

 were ready for the fight ; none more eager than the 

 scientific combatants. Suddenly all the scientific edifice, 

 or rather two edifices, collapsed like houses of cards. The 

 judge set aside the learned gentlemen, and called for the 

 evidence of colliers and coal merchants, who proved that 

 when the lease was granted the mineral in question was 

 known to exist, and vulgarly bore the name of coal — was 

 worked and bought and sold as coal. Such being the 

 case, the judge ruled that it was included in the contract, 

 and the jury found accordingly for the defendant. The 

 question was purely commercial, and was justly decided 

 on commercial grounds. I need scarcely add that I 

 heartily agree with the decision, though, as I shall show 

 in my next, the Boghead mineral belongs to the class of 

 bituminous shales, which differ widely from true coal. 



A FUTURE FOR THE EsoLisii FARMER.— Let the farmers of 

 England once realise the fact that they can make better cheese 

 and butter and rear finer cattle than anv country under the sun, 

 and that they can not only supply all England "with these com- 

 modities, but they can be very formidable rivals in foreign markets. 

 Have not the Americans themselves paid prices for single English 

 cows that would purchase a first-class farm and build model 

 farm-buildings 1 Let farmers only reflect upon the enormous 

 wealth that lies at their doors, and wake up to modern systems, 

 and not be above learning. The Americans, wise in their genera- 

 tion, have from time to time sent over agents to England to 

 inquire into the best modes of procedure, and they have 

 improved their dairies in accordance with any excellence 

 they may have seen in the old country. But let farmers learn from 

 them, and not stand still : and if thoy take to heart some of the 

 lessons they may gather from the various agricultural reports made 

 by men of high credit, they will see that their case is a hopeful one. 

 — Engliih lUmtrated Magazine. 



OUR GALAXY. 



LETTER TO SIR J. HERSCHEL.* 



By Richard A. Peocior. 



London, Aug. 8, 1869. 

 SHOULD have written sooner to thank you 

 for your very kind and encouraging letter, 

 but for great pressure on my time. I wish 

 also to mention, when writing, certain points 

 I had accidentally omitted from my former 

 letter. 



You are not to suppose that I write now 

 to meet the objections you have mentioned against my 

 notions respecting the Milky Way, though I may have 

 occasion to do so as I proceed. I do nut wish to regard 

 my views as something to be defended. I should have 

 studied your writings and examplf to little purpose if I 

 took this line. I may not hope, perhaps, to attain easily 

 that placidity with which you are able to urge or to 

 consider objections against hypotheses whose strong 

 joints you had shortly before exhibited ; but I have at 

 any rate definitely set that quality before me as the one 

 which is of all others the most valuable to the searcher 

 after truth. 



First of the omitted facts is the discovery made by 

 Lieut. Herschel that rich star-clusters sometimes show — 

 besides the continuous spectrum — the bright-line spec- 

 trum of the gaseous nebula*. This fact seems to me to 

 be of the utmost importance. We find in it a fresh bond 

 of union between all the members of the nebular family. 

 Mr. Huggins had shown that the planetary nebulae are 

 all gaseous. Tour own researches had confirmed this 

 and had rendered it highly probable that all the irregular 

 nebulie are also gaseotis. On the other hand, it had 

 seemed that the clusters are a class apart, while the irre- 

 solvable nebute (not belonging to planetary or irregular 

 classes) seemed to occupy a position midway between the 

 two classes of gaseous and stellar nebula; ; since they 

 showed in about equal proportions bright-line or con- 

 tinuous spectra. I was so convinced that this separation 

 of the nebula? into sets would be done away with after 

 awhile, that I asked !Mr. Huggins if it had occitrred to 

 him to look for signs of the bright-line spectrum super- 

 posed on the continuous spectrum given by the stellar 

 nebnlfe. He answered that his own view was similar to 

 mine, but he had hitherto been imsuccessful in proving 

 its justice. Lieut. Herschel's observations have supplied 

 the necessary evidence. It is scarcely necessary to dwell 

 on the significance of the facts thus brought together, 

 (I repeat some facts already referred to) : — 



1 . Irregular and planetary nebulae affect neighbourhood 

 of the Milky Way. 



2. Irresolvable nebulae segregate themselves from the 

 Milky Way. 



3. Clusters imitate the behaviour of the gaseous 

 nebula;. 



4. The first and third sets of nebulje belong to the 

 extreme classes as respects gaseity or non-gaseity.f 



* This letter, like that in No. l,New Series, is from the rough draft 

 of the letter actually sent : and I am unable to say in what degree 

 the latter differed from the first form. I am under the impression 

 that I sent a much condensed letter. It is so unusual with me to 

 make a draft of any letter I may have to write that I feel sure I 

 eventually sent a letter differing much from the present in form ; 

 but on the other hand the circumstance that I kept the rough draft 

 convinces me that in substance this letter presents what I actually 

 wrote. 



t When we arrange the nebula; (I.) in order of their apparent 

 stellarity, (II.) in order of their gaseity, and (III.) in order of their 



