August 25, 18S1] 



NATURE 



399 



potassium, for instance, is thrown into a Bunsen burner, the chief 

 line tliat one gets is a red one. Kirchhofl', in the early days of 

 solar chemical investigation, pointed out that this red line is not 

 to be found among the Fraunhofer lines. The flame also gives 

 us a line in the blue. If we examine the spectrum of potassium 

 by means of an induction-coil we find the blue line which we 

 also see in the flame, but it is intensified in the spark. We also 

 see S3me strong lines in the green and yellow, which are barely 

 visible in the flame — which are in fact not generally recorded in 

 the flame-spectnim of potassium, although they are really visible 

 when considerable dispersion is employed. These lines in the 

 yellow and green I siy become prominent lines. Now, it 

 so happens that some of these lines in the green do, it is 

 believed, correspond with Fraunhofer lines, and we are, 

 therefore, justified in assuming that tliey represent a something, 

 whatever it may be, in the potassium, which can withstand the 

 heat of the sun, while the red lines represent something which 



Fig. 49. — Spectra of pol. 



is broken up at the temperature of those regions of which we 

 can determine the absorption. The interesting point of the 

 experiment, therefore, is this: assuming for a moment that the 

 red line does represent a complex sometliing which cannot with- 

 stand the temperature of the sun, and that the yellow line repre- 

 sents a something finer which can withstand the temperature of 

 the sun, what happens when we try to drive off the vapour of 

 this potassium at the lou'csl temperature at » hicli we can get it 

 to volatilise at all, is that if the experiment is carefully performed 

 it gives precisely tho=e lines which are reversed in the solar s]iec- 

 trum alone, and of that line, which is the strongest line at the 

 temperature of the Bunsen burner we see absolutely nothing at all. 

 Referring to the spectrum which we get in the lilac and yellow- 

 green part of the tube, two out of the three lines visible at all 

 events are seen in the sun, whereas the other lines which we get 

 in the flame and some of them which we get in the coil are not 

 represented in that fine vapour which was produced at the lowest 

 possible temperature. 



The Bunsen burner produces some very exquisite colour-effects 

 in the tube, and especially develops a beautiful blood-red colour 

 which miglit be imagined to be the product of that molecule 

 which gives the<.red line in the Bunsen burner ; but that is not 

 the fact. The line seen in the Bunsen burner is not visible as a 

 rule in the vapour when heated in this way, the lines actually 

 seen being more refrangible. Fig. 49 is a map of the spectrum 

 of potassium under these various conditions. I give it simply 

 as an indication that it is possible when other laboratory 

 and chemical experiments are made with this view in mind that 

 other analogies than those already obtained will be forthcoming. 



The experiment then comes to this. If we assume the potas- 

 sium to be a compound body and that its finer constituent mole- 

 cules ai-e those which resist the solar temperature, then it behaves 

 exactly like a mixture of hydrocarbons is known to do, that is, 

 the finer vapours come off in gi'eatest quantity at the low^est 

 temperature, and the more complex ones as the temperature is 

 raised. 



Conclusion 



In concluding my lectures in this course on .Solar Physics I 

 would ask attention to the fact that the views which i have 

 ventured to put forward, as being what I honestly believe to 

 be the true outcome of the twenty years' work which lias been 

 applied to this subject, depend for their strength upon tlie 

 convergence of very various lines of thought and work. No 

 doubt the future progress of science will show that we, after all, 

 are lookinij through a glass darkly, and that we are not yet face 

 to face with the truth, and the wliole truth. We must all of 

 us be content to have our work criticised and expanded by 



future work, by researches carried on with greater skill, with 

 more elaborate methods and higher views. But with all these 

 reservatims I do wish to draw attention to the fact that the 

 convergence of many lines of work and many lines of thought 

 suggest the ideas which I have put forward. Depend upon 

 it, that we shall get a much higher and much richer truth 

 out of further inquiries ; and I quite acknowledge, although 

 I have had a hand in the work myself, that the outcome 

 of the work is so important that it ought to be considered 

 honestly and carefully from every point of view. Still I con- 

 sider that I am in honour bound to say, as the result of the 

 work on solar physics, in that small branch of the inquii-y into 

 solar matters w ith which I am more personally connected, that 

 my belief is that the late work has changed the views which 

 were held say twenty years ago to this extent ; whereas twenty 

 years ago we imagined ourselves to be in full jiresence in the sun 

 of chemical forms with which we are familiar here, I think in 

 this present year we are bound to consider that that view may be 

 modified to a certain extent, and that we are justified in holding 

 the view that, not these chemical forms, with which we are 

 acquainted here, but their germs really, are revealed to u- in the 

 Iiottest regions of the sun. J. Norman Lockyer 



NOTES FRO^r THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO 



A CORRESPONDENT in Java sends us the follow- 

 -'^ ing :— 



In 1879 I saw, at Tabu Breio, Padang Panjang, west coast of 

 Sumatra, a child aged about one and a half years, with four legs. 

 It was a female child with perfect organs, only the feet were 

 clubbed and the legs bent. The added -on pair of legs were 

 less perfect and their circulation evidently not in order, for they 

 were not so sensitive to pain (pinches, &c.). They looked as if 

 part of an embryo male child. The child was subject to fits ; 

 it could not walk, but crawled, using its female legs, the male (?) 

 legs being dragged along. The spine was much dragged out of 

 position. 



During about six months of 1880 there was a child at Surabaya, 

 Java, with two distinct heads joined to one neck. It is now 

 with the Regent (a Javanese) of Surabaya, in spirits. Photo- 

 graphs of this are sold. The brains were quite independent of 

 each other, for tlie one would sleep whilst the other was awake. 

 I have not heard whether the one could articulate whilst the 

 other slept. 



Bortiean Rhinoceros. — Mr. Bartlett writes to me: "We now 

 know for certain that the Bornean is the same as the Sumatran. 

 This comes of course from Hart Everett, and I do not doubt it 

 for a moment." But I have strong grounds for believing that 

 there are two kinds : — I . A Government official who recently spent 

 a year in the deepest recesses of the island says the natives told 

 him there were two kinds. 2. About eight years a','o a small rhi- 

 noceros was killed at Bunut, about 150 miles above Sintang, on 

 the Pontianak. This is certain, it had only one horn. I have 

 recently spoken to an officer who spent a year and a half in 

 the interior, and he says he always understood the animal had 

 only one horn. Anyhow it is very rare indeed. No European 

 I have met — and many have been a long way into Borneo — has 

 seen it. That may be because they are phlegmitic Du'ch, and 

 not inquiring English. But the natives who kdled the one at 

 Bunut had never seen one before. At the first sight they fled 

 in terror at such a beast. It might have been a young R. Sum., 

 as the horn was very small, and perhaps the trifling development 

 of bud horn escaped notice. 



A Dutch ship, the Batavia, has at length reached the point 

 where the 141st degree cuts the west coast of New Guinea. 

 This is considered a great feat ; why, I can't precisely say. 

 There has been a good deal of talk about sending; explorers to 

 the Dutch end of New Guinea, but directly money is asked for 

 silence reigns. They had much better finish with Sumatra 

 before going to New Guinea. 



The cattle plague has been raging in the west end of Java, 

 Bantam, the Preanger, and Batavia residences — during the west 

 monsoon (now finishing) with redoubled vigour. It has now 

 abated a little (after four years it may well do so, from want of 

 victims) in these parts, but is extending eastward, it^ appearance 

 in Krawang being the most alarming. The authorities have 

 decided upon making a double fence right across Java at its 

 narrowest part. This means a line from somewhere about 

 Cheribon due south. In the interval— a considerable one — 



