350 



NA TURE 



\_Aug. 27, 1874 



a distance of 400 metres, have still given a spectrum, for their 

 light, although feeble, is very simple in its constitution, and the 

 spectrum which it gives consists only of two or three bright 

 bands, one of hydrogen, the other of nitrogen. These nebula: 

 which give a spectrum of bright lines, are those which the most 

 powerful telescopes cannot resolve : there is an "abyss " between 

 them and resolvable nebula:, which, like ordinary stars, give a 

 spectrum with dark lines. 



What an effort of the human mind ! To discover the consti- 

 tution of stars of which the distances even are unknown ; of 

 nebulcE which are not yet worlds ; to establish a classification of 

 all the stars, and still more to guess their ages — ah, tell me, is not 

 this a triumph for science ? Yes, we have classed them according 

 to their ages. Stars coloured, stars yellow, stars white ; the 

 white are the hottest and the youngest ; their spectrum is 

 composed of a few lines only, and these Unes are dark. 

 Hydrogen predominates. Traces of magnesium are also met 

 with, of iron, and perhaps of sodium, and if it is true that 

 Sirius was a red star in the time of the ancients, it owed per- 

 haps its tint to the greater abundance of hydrogen at that epoch. 

 Our sun, Aldebaran, Arcturus, are among the yellow stars. In 

 their spectra the hydrogen lines are less developed, but the 

 metallic lines are fine and numerous. The coloured stars are not 

 so hot, and are older. In consequence of their age they emit less 

 vivid light. In them there is little or no hydrogen. Metallic 

 lines abound, but one also finds channelled spaces like the hues 

 of compounds. The temperature being lower, these latter can 

 exist whether they consist of atoms joined to others of the same 

 kind, or wdiether they contain groups of heterogeneous atoms. 

 In referring recently to this classificalion of Father Secchi and 

 the distribution of simple bodies in distant stars, Lockyer has 

 observed that the elements the atoms of which are lightest are to 

 be found in the hottest stars, and that the metals with high 

 atomic weights are, on the contrary, met with in the colder stars ; 

 and he adds this — Are not the first elements the result of a de- 

 composition brought about by the extreme temperatures to which 

 the latter are exposed, and, taking them altogether, are they not 

 the product of a condensation of very light atoms of an unknown 

 primordial matter, which is perhaps ether ? 



Thus is brought forward afresh, from considerations taken 

 from the constitution of the universe, this question of the 

 unity of matter which chemistry has before raised from a con- 

 sideration of the relative weight of atoms. It is not solved, and 

 it is probable that it never will be in the sense here indicated. 

 Everything leads to the belief in the diversity of matter, and the 

 indestructible, irreducible nature of atoms. Does it not require, 

 as M. Berthelot has pointed out, the same quantity of heat to put 

 them in motion, whether they are heavy or light, and ought not 

 the law of Petit and Dulong to prevail in its simplicity against 

 the opposite hypothesis, however ingenious it may be ? 



I have endeavoured, gentlemen, to trace out for you the most 

 recent progress accomplished in chemistry, in physics, and in 

 physical astronomy, sciences so diverse in tlieir object, but which 

 have a basis in common — matter — and one supreme object — a 

 knowledge of its constitution and of its properties and of its dis- 

 tribution in the universe. They teach us that the worlds which 

 people infinite space are made like our own system, and that 

 this gre.at universe is all movement, co-ordinated movement. But 

 new and marvellous fact, this harmony of the celestial spheres of 

 which Pythagoras spoke, and which a modern poet has cele- 

 brated in immortal verse, is met with in the world of the in- 

 finitely little. There also aU is co-ordinated movement, and 

 these atoms, whose accumulation forms matter, have never any 

 repose ; a grain of dust is full of iimumerable multitudes of mate- 

 rial unities each of which is agitated by movements. All 

 viljrates in the little world, and this universal restlessness of 

 matter, this "atomic music," to continue the metaphor of the 

 ancient philosopher, is like the harmony of worlds ; and is it not 

 true that the imagination is equally bewildered and the spirit 

 equally troubled by the spectacle of the illimitable immensity of 

 the universe and by the consideration of the millions of atoms 

 which people a drop of water. Hear the words of Pascal ; "I 

 wish to picture not only the visible universe, but the immensity 

 of nature that one can conceive within the limits of an atom ; 

 one may picture there an infinity of worlds, where each has its 

 fiimiment, as in the visible universe." 



As to matter, it is everywhere the same, and the hydrogen of 

 water we meet with in our sun, in Sirius, and in the nebula:, 

 everywhere it moves, everywhere it vibrates, and these move- 

 ments which appear to us inseparable from atoms, are also the 

 origin of all physical and chemical force. 



Such is the order of nature, and as science penetrates it fur- 

 ther, she brings to light both the simplicity of the means set at 

 work and the infinite variety of the results. Thus, through the 

 comer of the veil we have been permitted to raise, she enables 

 us to see both the harmony and the profundity of the plan of the 

 universe. Then we enter on another domain which the human 

 spirit will be always impelled to enter and explore. It is thus, 

 and you cannot change it. It is in vain that science has revealed 

 to it the structure of the world and the order of all the pheno- 

 mena ; it wishes to mount higher, and in the conviction that 

 things have not in themselves their own raison iViltn; their 

 support and their origin, it is led to subject them to a first 

 cause — unique, universal God. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Alittheilnngcii aiis deffi Cotiin^en Anthropologischgn 

 Vereine, which are edited by Dr. Hermann von Jhering, promise 

 to give important contributions to the department of anthropo- 

 logical science, and the appearance of these selections from the 

 Transactions tf the Society will be hailed with satisfaction. 

 The first number contains an interesting paper on the origin ot 

 our knowledge of iron and bronze in Europe, by Prof. F. W. 

 Unger, in which the author considers seriatitn (i) the application 

 of bronze for religious or sacrificial objects ; (2) the linguistic 

 affinity of the terms for ores, or metal generally, in different 

 languages ; (3-6) the mythical references to their use, seat of 

 original works and the modes of employing bronze for and in 

 connection with ceremonies of cremation. The section under 

 which Prof. Unger treats of the myths and sigas connected with 

 the history of the discovery and the first working of metals is 

 especially interesting in regard to the early knowledge of iron 

 possessed by the Tschudi, or primitive people of tlie Altai, 

 through whom he believes that the Indo-Germanic races derived 

 their acquaintance with its sources and modes of working. — 

 A paper on skulls of extreme breadth, by Dr. von Jhering, 

 which is rather a compendium of what has been done towards 

 the definition of normal and abnormal types than a contribu- 

 tion of original matter, is aptly supplemented by the descrip- 

 tion of a new craniometer, given in the concluding extracts 

 of the Transactions by Dr. W. Sprengel, who draws attention 

 to the important direction taken by craniometrical inquiries in the 

 course of the last year by the introduction of Dr. von Jhering's 

 horizontal-plane apparatus, of which plates and detailed expla- 

 nations are appended by the writer. — In a paper on the very 

 widely- spread custom of tattooing the human body, in which 

 some inquirers have believed they could trace the earliest origin 

 of the art of using graved and written characters to express ideas, 

 Herr Krause considers whether in this far-extending practice we 

 have not an argument in favour of the unity of the human race. 

 The author is not of opinion that we are justified in accepting 

 this suggestion as capable of proof, but he thinks that this prac- 

 tice, against which Moses warned the Israelites, had a far higher 

 significance than that of mere personal ornamentation, and was 

 probably at one time or other associated with the religion of the 

 several peoples who adopted it, while it also served as an emble- 

 matic emblasonment of the pretensions or calling of the wearer, 

 a talismanic or hieroglypliic form of speech, and as a permanent 

 pictorial exponent of facts in the absence of any other written 

 language. 



CONTENTS 



Page 



[E Science Commission 331 



L Prehistoric Congress of Anthropology 

 AND Arch.«ology — Stockholm Meeting. By Dr. George 



Harley, F.R S 332 



Armstrong's " Organic Chemistry" 333 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Mr. Herbert .Spercer.-ind Physical Axioms.— R. B Havward . 335 



Darwin on " I'iie Origination of Life." — A Discicle of Darxvin . 33s 



Meteors. — Thos. H. Waller 33(5 



Another New Comet. By J. R. Hind, F.R.S 336 



The British Association at Belfast 336 



Section B. — Opening Address by the President 337 



Section E. do. do do. 339 



Reports 342 



Notes 343 



The French Association. By W. de Fonvielle 344 



Openi.ng Address mv the President, M. Wuktz, at the Meeting 



of the French Association 345 



Scientific Serials 350 



