THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON 



assiduity, and even suggested a possible connection be- 

 tween sun-spots and terrestrial weather. So far, then, 

 he would not be surprised on hearing the announce- 

 ment of Professor Lockyer's recent paper before the 

 Royal Society on the connection between sun-spots 

 and the rainfall in India. But when the paper goes on 

 to speak of the actual chemical nature of the sun-spots, 

 as tested by a spectroscope; to tell of a "cool" stage 

 when the vapor of iron furnishes chief spectrum lines, 

 and of a "hot" stage when the iron has presumably 

 been dissociated into unknown "proto-iron" constitu- 

 ents then indeed does it go far beyond the compre- 

 hension of the keenest eighteenth-century intellect, 

 though keeping within the range of understanding of 

 the mere scientific tyro of to-day. 



Or yet again, consider a recent paper contributed by 

 Professor Lockyer to the Royal Society, entitled "The 

 New Star in Perseus: Preliminary Note" referring to 

 the new star that flashed suddenly on the vision of the 

 terrestrial observers at more than first magnitude on 

 February 22, 1901. This "star," the paper tells us, 

 when studied by its spectrum, is seen to be due to the 

 impact of two swarms of meteors out in space swarms 

 moving in different directions "with a differential ve- 

 locity of something like seven hundred miles a second." 

 Every astronomer of to-day understands how such a 

 record is read from the displacement of lines on the 

 spectrum, as recorded on the photographic negative. 

 But imagine Sir William Herschel, roused from a cen- 

 tury's slumber, listening to this paper, which involves 

 a subject of which he was the first great master. " Neb- 

 ulae," he might say; "yes, they were a specialty of 



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