30 
NATURE 
[May 11,1871 

specially called attention, accounts for the diffusion of 
some poisons through the body and for that rapid action 
of certain poisonous substances which so many experi- 
menters have endeavoured, but not successfully, to ex- 
plain; further, he suggests that in some instances 
poisonous products of decomposition generated within 
the body itself, in disease, may be diffused through the 
nervous ether, and that the sudden collapse of nervous 
function, which is often seen in acute disease, may be 
due to this cause. Finally, there may be conditions of 
disease in which there is unnatural tension of the 
nervcus atmosphere, followed by disturbance of muscu- 
lar motion, convulsion, or cerebral pressure, leading to 
apoplectic insensibili y. 
We have sketched out thus briefly the leading points of 
this theory of a nervous atmosphere or ether produced, 
during life, within and by the living organism, as a theory 
calculated to give rise to much discussion and device of 
new experiment. 

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATION 
“Pee statistics of modern astronomical observation 
would, we suspect, be very curious, if it were possible 
to get at them. A report showing the gradual increase 
in the number of telescopes manufactured during the last 
fifty years would be very interesting ; and so would be a 
table comprising at once the advance in their dimensions 
and the diminution in their cost. The result would, we 
believe, be such as at first sight to cause great surprise 
among those unacquainted with the subject, or those 
whose recollection does not go back to days when five 
nches was as extraordinary an aperture for an object- 
glass, as double that size is now. But the value of these, 
as of other tabular statistics, would suffer material abate- 
ment, if they were applied to establish any other conclu- 
sions than those to which they directly lead. For instance 
they would probably be fallacious, if considered as infer- 
ring a proportionate increase in the number of important 
observations. In order to bring out sucha result, we 
require, so to speak, another factor, and a very essential 
one—a corresponding increase in the number of competent 
observers. This, we fear, may not have been commen- 
surate with the advance of optical means : at least, except 
upon the supposition of some such deficiency, it is diffi- 
cult to understand what becomes of the multitude of really 
good object-glasses which are annually produced, not only 
in England, but in Germany and America. A large pro- 
portion of these, we are led to think, must be purchased 
to be looked at, and not looked through : or handled as 
mere toys for the amusement of people who do not know 
what to do with themselves in an idle evening. This 
was not so much the case in the early days of telescope- 
manufacture. The greatest master of figuring specula in 
his own time was also the greatest proficient in using 
them: it is needless to add the name of Sir William 
Herschel. And so the finest reflectors in Germany were 
placed at the same period in the hands of the leader of 
all accurate selenographical investigation, J. H. Schroter. 
These were “the right men in the right place.” Even 
then, it may be said, many noble reflectors went, no one 
knows where, the greater part of them long before this 
time useless from tarnish, or, still more mortifying to 
think upon, ruined by unskilful repolishing. Still, ad- 
mitting this, the disappearance of powerful instruments 
does not seem to have been so remarkable in those days as 
it is now, and the quantity ofreally valuable observations 
appears to have been greater in the end of the last and 
~ the early part of the present century, in proportion to the 
means of observing. 
This is not a very encouraging view of the present state 
of this branch of astronomy. But, if well founded, as we 

believe it to be, we might expect that there would be 
some assignable reasons for it ; and, in fact, several are 
sufficiently obvious. One certainly is, that the process of 
discovery is not, generally speaking, renewable. What 
has been once detected is usually placed on record, in 
bar of all future claims. So it has been in the science of 
music ; a man might arise among us with the fervid 
genius of Handel, but he could not write the Hallelujah 
Chorus over again; and doubtless the spirit of Men- 
delssohn must have been cramped by the impossibility of 
employing many of the noblest and most impressive sub- 
jects waich had been anticipated by his predecessors. 
And so it has been in the researches of geography. The 
enterprising explorer has now to go much farther in pur- 
suit of “ fresh woods and pastures new,” and every Alpine 
season is so rapidly narrowing the number of summits 
untrodden by the foot of man, that the excitement of a 
first ascent will soon have to be sought in remoter regions. 
Thus in astronomy, though it cannot be said that there 
are no worlds left to conquer, yet all the larger and more 
conspicuous features of the heavenly bodies have been 
long ago so fully noted and recorded, that what remains 
for exploration is chiefly of that delicate character which, 
without being the less interesting from its minuteness, is 
less accessible, for that reason, to the possessors of or- 
dinary instruments. And on this account many a student 
who might well have risen from the ranks in the earlier 
days of scientific campaigning, is now compelled to re- 
main in comparative obscurity—a mere spectator, when 
he might well have taken his place among the discoverers 
of fifty years ago. 
Another reason why tools have multiplied without a 
corresponding increase of good work, may be this, that 
looking upon the observer and his instrument as a com- 
plex apparatus, the improvement of the intelligent has not 
kept pace with that of the material part. In fact, it is 
impossible that it should. The eye is but what it was 
when David learned humility from considering God’s 
heavens, the work of His fingers, the moon and the stars 
which He hath ordained ; the intellect, though more de- 
veloped and cultivated, is not more strong and piercing 
than it was in the days of Hipparchus ; man does much 
more with his brain, but he has no more brain to do it 
with, than his uncivilised ancestors ; and observers may, 
and will be, collectively multiplied without being indi- 
vidually improved. Every man that has eyes does not 
know how to use them ; or, not failing in this respect, he 
may lack other requisites : he may not know what to look 
for, or where to find it; or he may be deficient in his 
handling of the faithful pencil or the expressive pen. 
And so it comes to pass that the capacities of instruments 
may be much in advance of the abilities of those who use 
them. 
Besides all this, there is a physical obstacle of an en- 
tirely different character, which must not be forgotten ; 
the unimprovable constitution of our own atmosphere. 
This will ever be a sore subject for the zealous observer, 
especially among ourselves. If even Secchi finds fault 
with the glorious Roman heavens, what have we not to 
regret in our own murky, and fuzzy, and restless skies ? 
Who that has read the most graphic as well as instructive 
writings of Sir J. Herschel is likely to forget his complaints 
of “twitching, twirling, wrinkling, and horrible moulaing ?” 
and who that has had much actual experience of observa- 
tory work will not endorse all this with a very lively fellow- 
feeling? The nights may easily be numbered, during a 
long season, in which the defects of the atmospher do 
not overlie those of the instrument, and when the observer 
has not rather to wish that he could see all that his tele- 
scope could show him, than to long for greater power or 
light, to be expended in making atmospheric disturbaices 
yet more conspicuous and prejudicial. The only way to 
obviate this grievous hindrance is to get above it ; andno 
man has yet done this except Professor Piazzi Smyth in 
