ADDRESS. ~ lix 
of our planet. Thespectrim experiments of Bunsen and Kirchhoff have not 
only shown all this, but they have also corroborated previous conjectures as 
to the luminous envelope of the sun. I have still to advert to Mr. Nasmyth’s 
remarkable discovery, that the bright surface of the sun is composed of an 
aggregation of apparently solid forms, shaped like willow-leaves or some well- 
known forms of Diatomacez, and interlacing one another in every direction. 
The forms are so regular in size and shape, as to have led to a suggestion 
from one of our profoundest philosophers of their being organisms, possibly 
eyen partaking of the nature of life, but at all events closely connected 
with the heating and vivifying influences of the sun. These mysterious 
objects, which, since Mr. Nasmyth discovered them, have been seen by other 
observers as well, are computed to be each not less than 1000 miles in length 
and about 100 miles in breadth. The enormous chasms in the sun’s photo- 
sphere, to which we apply the diminutive term ‘‘spots,” exhibit the extremities 
of these leaf-like bodies pointing inwards, and fringing the sides of the cavern 
far down into the abyss. Sometimes they form a sort of rope or bridge 
across the chasm, and appear to adhere to one another by lateral attraction. 
I can imagine nothing more deserving of the scrutiny of observers than these 
extraordinary forms. The sympathy also which appears to exist between 
forces operating in the sun and magnetic forces belonging to the earth merits 
a continuance of that close attention which it has already received from the 
British Association, and of labours such as General Sabine has with so much 
ability and effect devoted to the elucidation of the subject. I may here notice 
that most remarkable phenomenon which was seen by independent observers 
at two different places on the 1st of September 1859. A sudden outburst of 
light, far exceeding the brightness of the sun’s surface, was seen to take place, 
and sweep like a drifting cloud over a portion of the solar face. This was 
attended with magnetic disturbances of unusual intensity and with exhibitions 
of aurora of extraordinary brilliancy. The identical instant at which the 
effusion -of light was observed was recorded by an abrupt and strongly 
marked deflection in the self-registering instruments at Kew. The pheno- 
menon as seen was probably only part of what actually took place, for the 
magnetic storm in the midst of which it occurred commenced before and 
continued after the event. If conjecture be allowable in such a case, we may 
suppose that this remarkable event had some connexion with the means by 
which the sun’s heat is renovated. It is a reasonable supposition that the 
sun was at that time in the act of receiving a more than usual accession 
of new energy; and the theory which assigns the maintenance of its 
power to cosmical matter plunging into it with that prodigious ‘velocity 
which gravitation would impress upon it as it approached to actual contact 
with the solar orb, would afford an explanation of this sudden exhibition of 
intensified light in harmony with the knowledge we have now attained that 
arrested motion is represented by equivalent heat. Telescopic observations 
will probably add new facts to guide our judgment on this subject, and, taken 
in connexion with observations on terrestrial magnetism, may enlarge and 
correct our views respecting the nature of heat, light, and electricity. Much 
as we have yet to learn respecting these agencies, we know sufticient to infer 
that they cannot be transmitted from the sun to the earth except by com- 
munication from particle to particle of intervening matter. Not that I speak 
of particles in the sense of the atomist. Whatever our views may be of the 
nature of particles, we must conceive them as centres invested with surround- 
ing forces. We have no evidence, either from our senses or otherwise, of these 
centres being occupicd by solid cores of indivisible incompressible matter 
