SOME PHYSICAL PROBLEMS 



being accomplished within it than is shown in the 

 case of the South Kensington observatory. It should 

 be added that this remark does not apply to the chief 

 building of the Royal College of Science itself. 



The theories for which Professor Lockyer has so 

 long been famous are well known to every one who 

 takes much interest in the progress of scientific ideas. 

 They are notably the theory that there is a direct causal 

 association between the prevalence of sun-spots and 

 terrestrial weather ; the theory of the meteoritic origin 

 of all members of the sidereal family; and the disso- 

 ciation theory of the elements, according to which our 

 so-called elements are really compounds, capable of 

 being dissociated into simpler forms when subjected 

 to extreme temperatures, such as pertain in many 

 stars. As I have said, these theories are by no means 

 new. Professor Lockyer has made them familiar by 

 expounding them for a full quarter of a century or 

 more. But if not new, these theories are much too im- 

 portant to have been accepted at once without a pro- 

 test from the scientific world. In point of fact, each of 

 them has been met with most ardent opposition, and 

 it would, perhaps, not be too much to say that not one 

 of them is, as yet, fully established. It is of the high- 

 est interest to note, however, that the multitudinous 

 observations bearing upon each of these topics during 

 the past decade have tended, in Professor Lockyer's 

 opinion, strongly to corroborate each one of these 

 opinions. 



Two or three years ago Sir Norman Lockyer, in asso- 

 ciation with his son, communicated to the Royal So- 

 ciety a paper in which the data recently obtained as 



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