I So POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



spots on his surface, the corona and the red and 

 yellow prominences seen round him during total 

 eclipses, the moon, the planets, comets, auroras, 

 nebulae, white stars, yellow stars, reel stars, variable 

 and temporary stars, each tested by the prism was 

 compelled to show its distinguishing colours. 

 Rarely before in the history of science has 

 enthusiastic perseverance directed by penetrative 

 genius produced within ten years so brilliant a 

 succession of discoveries. It is not merely the 

 cJiemistry of sun and stars, as first suggested, that 

 is subjected to analysis by the spectroscope. Their 

 whole laws of being arc now subjects of direct 

 investigation ; and already we have glimpses of 

 their evolutional history through the stupendous 

 power of this most subtle and delicate test. We 

 had only solar and stellar chemistry ; we now have 

 solar and stellar physiology. 



It is an old idea that the colour of a star may 

 be influenced by its motion relatively to the eye of 

 the spectator, so as to be tinged with red if it 

 moves from the earth, or blue if it moves towards 

 the earth. William Allen Miller, Huggins, and 



