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cally changed in its conditions by the same cause as to occasion no longer 

 any surprise at the enumeration of special instances. Freed from the 

 goading importunity of physical wants, man is more and more devoting 

 his life to a theoretical activity, increasing thereby the breadth and accu- 

 racy of his survey of the world in which he lives, and concentrating more 

 attention upon the organization of society, in whose processes ebb and 

 flow the tides of his spiritual life. Out of the immense mass of data which 

 the scientific activity of the past year has placed at my disposal, I can at 

 best only mention here and there a striking detail, and hold it up as a 

 sample of the stores of which I can attempt to give no inventory. 



ASTRONOMY. 



The visit of the distinguished astronomer Proctor to our city, the past 

 year, is still vividly remembered by us all as a practical demonstration of 

 the superior interest which attaches to all masterly expositions of Nature. 

 Later in the year, the appearance in our skies of the comet of Coggia for- 

 nished illustration of the exposition which he made of the nature of these 

 singular bodies. The careful investigations of Huggins and Secchi regard- 

 ing its spectra have added much not before known. It must be remem- 

 bered that Coggia's comet is the first large one visible since the utilization 

 of the spectroscope. The old theory regarding comets has been exploded. 

 They are not composed of nitrogen, as at first supposed, but of carbon 

 vapor and — as Dr. Vogel and Dr. Zenke think — watery vapor. Mean- 

 while, their connection with meteoric showers has received additional 

 confirmation. It is not probable that the nucleus or the tail of a comet is 

 composed of meteors, but it seems that meteors follow the nucleus without 

 luminosity, except when impinging upon our atmosphere. The proba- 

 bility of immense showers of comet or meteoric dust upon the earth, by 

 reason of our annual passage through three or four streams of these bodies, 

 has led to the investigation of the soil of widely separated tracts, in order 

 to discover if possible traces of matter of a composition similar to that of 

 meteoric stones hitherto analyzed. The investigation has proved sucess- 

 ful, and Prof. Nordenskiold of Stockholm relates in Poggendorfs Annalen 

 that he has found these traces of metallic iron and carbon, as well as of 

 nickel and cobalt, in the snow of certain great snow-storms supposed to be 

 connected with meteoric disturbances. 



While the spectroscope is yielding great returns to science in the way 

 of determining for us the chemical analysis of the most distant bodies in 

 the universe, the telescope is again rapidly improving. Immense refracting 

 instruments are now being made with a perfection hitherto deemed impos- 

 sible. That of the Naval Observatory at Washington — twenty-six inches 

 in clear aperture — is likely to be rivalled by another one constructed by the 

 same maker — Mr. Alvan Clarke — for the Washington and Lee College of 

 Virginia ; and we hear of a monster endowment of $750,000 for the purpose 

 of building an observatory on the Sierras in California, and furnishing it 

 with a telescope of a size far beyond anything hitherto attempted. As the 



