262 IN STARRY REALMS. 



research which of all others seems to have yielded the most 

 striking results. The subject which I chiefly propose to 

 discuss is the application of the spectroscope to the study 

 of the movements of the heavenly bodies, a subject with 

 which the name of Huggins is primarily associated. 



We have been long accustomed to receive with interest 

 the tidings which the spectroscope conveys as to the 

 constitution of the bodies throughout space. It was the 

 primary function of that beautiful instrument to analyse 

 the light which came from afar ; and by decomposing the 

 composite beam into its constituents, the spectroscope 

 declared to us the actual materials present in the bodies 

 from which the light emanated. It was astonishing to 

 learn that thirty-five of the elements known on this earth 

 were present on the sun. Somewhat similar announce- 

 ments were made with respect to the stars and various 

 other heavenly bodies. The information thus won was a 

 most important accession to our knowledge of the material 

 construction of the universe. Certain philosophers had 

 even formulated the doctrine that to discover the elements 

 present in the stars must necessarily lie beyond the pro- 

 vince of man's powers. The events, however, entirely 

 disconcerted these rash assertions. We have learned much 

 as to the elementary bodies present in various celestial 

 orbs, and quite recently we have come to believe not only 

 that the elements in the sun have much in common 

 with those in the earth, but that the two bodies are so 

 similar in constitution that, in the striking words of 

 Sir William Huggins in his address to the British Associa- 

 tion (1891), it almost seems that, if the earth were heated 

 to the same temperature as the sun, it would emit a spec- 



