366 THE CHEMISTKY OF THE SUN. [CHAP. 



naturally had no solar spectrum to guide me ; but what I really 

 did see was as if all the banded spectra I had ever seen were 

 superposed. My instrument was a short focus photographic 

 lens of 6 -inch aperture and one flint prism ; so that the light 

 in the spectrum was ample. One could be certain of what 

 one saw. I trust that at no distant day this observation will 

 be confirmed with as powerful instrumental appliances. 



But this evidence as to the very complex chemical nature of 

 the corona does not rest upon my own observations alone, a 

 photograph was secured of its spectrum in the blue and ultra 

 violet on one of Captain Abney's dry plates, and it is stated that 

 lines are seen in it which are special to the corona, as opposed 

 to the prominences. 



We are driven, then, to the conclusion that the corona is a 

 mixture of incandescent vapours and solid or liquid particles, 

 and if the hypothesis be granted we can make a stride forward 

 towards simplification, and explain the phenomena presented 

 by the corona by suggesting that the vapours are due to dis- 

 sociation at the photospheric level, and the particles which in part 

 give the continuous spectrum to association at higher levels. In 

 this way the vertical currents in the solar atmosphere, both 

 ascending and descending, the intense absorption in sun-spots, 

 and their association with the faculse, find an easy solution in 

 connection with the spectrum of the corona, and its structure. 



It is clear that the association to which I have referred is 

 practically the production of solid masses of matter which if we 

 could get at them would be found to resemble those other masses 

 which we call meteorites. This is not the first time that the 

 word meteorite has been used in connection with this spectrum 

 of the corona, but I am not aware that it has anywhere 

 been clearly pointed out that some solar meteorites, at all 

 events, must be home-made. The suggestion that the phenomena 

 of the corona are due to cosmical meteorites has been made 

 over and over again. 



