ins 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



718 



compels the moon to accompany the earth 

 in its path round the sun, and which keeps 

 the earth itself from fleeing off into space, 

 away from the sun. HELMHOLTZ Popular 

 Lectures, lect. 4, p. 145. (L. G. & Co., 1898.) 



3557. Laws of Gravita- 

 tion and of Chemistry the Same through 

 Farthest Space. That a science of stellar 

 chemistry should not only have become pos- 

 sible, but should already have made ma- 

 terial advances, is assuredly one of the most 

 amazing features in the swift progress of 

 knowledge our age has witnessed. Custom 

 can never blunt the wonder with which 

 we must regard the achievement of compel- 

 ling rays emanating from a source devoid 

 of sensible magnitude through immeasurable 

 distance, to reveal, by its peculiarities, the 

 composition of that source. The discovery 

 of revolving double stars assured us that the 

 great governing force of the planetary move- 

 ments, and of our own physical existence, 

 sways equally the courses of the farthest 

 suns in space; the application of prismatic 

 analysis certified to the presence in the 

 stars of the familiar materials, no less of 

 the earth we tread, than of the human bod- 

 ies built up out of its dust and circum- 

 ambient vapors. CLEBKE History of As- 

 tronomy, pt. ii, ch. 12, p. 450. (BL, 1893.) 



3558. Sodium Found in 



Spectrum of a Comet. Comet Wells [in its 

 circuit], approached its [the sun's] sur- 

 face within little more than five million 

 miles on June 10, 1882; and it is not doubt- 

 ful that to this circumstance the novel fea- 

 ture in its incandescence was due. During 

 the first half of April its spectrum was of the 

 normal type, tho the carbon bands were un- 

 usually weak; but with increasing vicinity 

 to the sun they died out, and the entire 

 light seemed to become concentrated into a 

 narrow, unbroken, brilliant streak, hardly 

 to be distinguished from the spectrum of a 

 star. This unusual behavior excited atten- 

 tion, and a strict watch was kept. It was 

 rewarded at the Dunecht Observatory, May 

 27, by the discernment of what had never 

 before been seen in a comet the yellow 

 ray of sodium. By June 1 this had kindled 

 into a blaze overpowering all other emis- 

 sions. The light of the comet was practical- 

 ly monochromatic; and the image of the 

 entire head, with the root of the tail, could 

 be observed, like a solar prominence, depict- 

 ed, in its new saffron vesture of vivid illu- 

 mination, within the jaws of an open slit. 

 CLERKE History of Astronomy, pt. ii, ch. 11, 

 p. 431. (BL, 1893.) 



3559. UNITY, VISIBLE AND TAN- 

 GIBLE Luminiferous Ether a Solid The 

 Crystalline Orb of Poetry. Sir J. Herschel 

 has declared that the luminiferous ether 

 must be conceived of not as an air, nor as a 

 fluid, but rather as a solid " in this sense, 

 at least, that its particles cannot be sup- 

 posed as capable of interchanging places, or 

 of bodily transfer to any measurable dis- 



tance from their own special and assigned 

 localities in the universe." Well may Sir 

 J. Herschel add that "this will go far to 

 realize (in however unexpected a form) the 

 ancient idea of a crystalline orb." And thus 

 the wonderful result of all investigation is 

 that this earth is in actual rigid contact 

 with the most distant worlds in space 

 in rigid contact, that is to say, through a 

 medium which touches and envelops all, and 

 which is incessantly communicating from 

 one world to another the minutest vibra- 

 tions it receives. ARGYLL Unity of Nature, 

 ch. 1, p. 8. (Burt.) 



3560. UNIVERSALITY OF DEEP- 

 SEA LIFE No Part of the Ocean Azoic. 

 As soon as it became clear to naturalists 

 that there is no part of the ocean, however 

 deep it may be, that deserves the name 

 " azoic," but that almost every part has a 

 fauna of greater or less density, the prob- 

 lem of the origin of this fauna presented 

 itself. HICKSON Fauna of the Deep Sea, 

 ch. 3, p. 53. (A., 1894.) 



3561. UNIVERSALITY OF EMULA- 

 TION Affects Even Religion (2 Cor. ix, 2-4). 

 Emulation or rivalry, a very intense in- 

 stinct, [is] especially rife with young chil- 

 dren, or at least especially undisguised. 

 Every one knows it. Nine-tenths of the 

 work of the world is done by it. We know 

 that if we do not do the task some one else 

 will do it and get the credit; so we do it. 

 It has very little connection with sympathy, 

 but rather more with pugnacity. JAMES 

 Psychology, vol. ii, ch. 24, p. 409. (H. H. 

 & Co., 1899.) 



3562. UNIVERSE, ANCIENT IDEA 



OF THE Cicero's Scheme as Given in the 

 " Dream of Scipio " Hearing Blunted ~by 

 Harmony. The universe is composed of 

 nine circles, or rather of nine globes, which 

 move. The external sphere is that of the 

 sky, which includes all the others, and on 

 which are fixed the stars. Within revolve 

 seven globes, drawn along by a motion con- 

 trary to that of the sky. On the first circle 

 revolves the star which men call Saturn; on 

 the second moves Jupiter, a star beneficent 

 and propitious to human beings; then comes 

 Mars, glowing and abhorred; below, occupy- 

 ing the middle region, shines the sun, chief, 

 prince, moderator of the other stars, life of 

 the world, whose immense globe illuminates 

 and fills the volume of its light. After him 

 come, like two companions, Venus and Mer- 

 cury. Finally, the lower orbit is occupied 

 by the moon, which borrows its light from 

 the day-star. Below this last celestial circle 

 there is nothing but mortal and corruptible, 

 with the exception of the souls given by di- 

 vine kindness to the human race. Above the 

 moon all is eternal. Our earth, placed at 

 the center of the world, and separated from 

 the sky in all directions, remains motion- 

 less, and all heavy bodies are drawn towards 

 it by their own weight. 



