n8 PLEASANT WAYS IN SCIENCE. 



of which would exceed many times in volume a sphere filling 

 the entire space of the orbit of Neptune), fell on some remote 

 sun in the Northern Crown. But there are no sufficient 

 reasons for rejecting or even doubting the theory that a comet, 

 bearing in its train a flight of many millions of meteoric masses, 

 falling directly upon such a sun, might cause it to shine with 

 many times its ordinary lustre, but only for a short time, a few 

 months or weeks, or a few days, or even hours. In the article 

 entitled " Suns in Flames," in my " Myths and Marvels of 

 Astronomy," before the startling evidence recently obtained 

 from the star in Cygnus had been thought of, I thus indicated 

 the probable effects of such an event : " When the earth has 

 passed through the richer portions (not the actual nuclei be it 

 remembered) of meteor systems, the meteors visible from even 

 a single station have been counted by tens of thousands, and 

 it has been computed that millions must have fallen upon 

 the whole earth. These were meteors following in the trains 

 of very small comets. If a very large comet followed by no 

 denser a flight of meteors, but each meteoric mass much 

 larger, fell directly upon the sun, it would not be the out- 

 skirts but the nucleus of the meteoric train which would 

 impinge upon him. They would number thousands of 

 millions. The velocity of downfall of each mass would be 

 more than 360 miles per second. And they would continue 

 to pour in upon him for several days in succession, millions 

 falling every hour. It seems not improbable that under this 

 tremendous and long-continued meteoric hail, his whole sur- 

 face would be caused to glow as intensely as that small part 

 whose brilliancy was so surprising in the observation made 

 by Carrington and Hodgson. In that case our sun, seen 

 from some remote star whence ordinarily he is invisible, 

 would shine out as a new sun for a few days, while all things 

 living, on our earth and whatever other members of the solar 

 system are the abodes of life, would inevitably be destroyed." 

 There are, indeed, reasons for believing, not only, as I 

 have already indicated, that the outburst in the sun was 

 caused by the downfall of meteoric masses, but that those 



