6 
to Solar Physics made in America in this century. Grant- 
ing the fact of the existence of bright lines in the solar spec- 
trum, and no one after seeing Prof. Draper’s photographs on 
collodion could doubt the fact, all the new views expressed 
in this paper follow as a matter of course. The bright lines 
are not only clearly apparent when looked for, but are nu- 
merous. 
Mr. Chase joined in the tribute of merited admiration for Dr. Draper’s 
brilliant discoveries, and suggested that a possible explanation for the dif- 
ferent action of different elements might be found in differences of density 
and elasticity. 
W. M. Hicks (L. E. and D. P. Mag, June 1877), by special assumptions, 
and by a mistake in calculation (see his note in P. Mag, July 1877), ob- 
; Pek 
tains the ratio — — 1.423. He says: ‘‘If, then, the two atoms of a molecule 
c 
have separated, there seem only two ways of accounting for it. Hither 
their relative motion becomes so large as to overcome the force of attrac- 
tion, or some external force must act upon them, which can be nothing 
less than a reaction between them and some other molecule. The latter is 
the hypothesis I have adopted in the following investigation.”” My own 
ratio, based on relative motions (Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., xiv., 651), is 
e! 
ce 
accidental, but it is none the less curious. The reasoning upon which it was 
based seems to justify both my own views of the kinetic energies in 
perfect gases, and Hicks’s view of the importance of temperature relations 
in coercible gases. 
In a mass, like the Sun, which is presumably at or near the point of dis- 
sociation, gaseous permanence and gaseous density would both contribute 
to a change of elliptic into linear radial oscillations, which would have ac- 
quired their mean velocity at points ranging between about 180,000 miles, 
and 260,000 miles above the Sun’s surface. It is, therefore, quite possible, 
especially if hydrogen is metallic, that oxygen, carbon, and other non- 
metals, may have greater centrifugal tendencies than hydrogen and 
metallic vapors. Perhaps spectroscopic observations near the Sun’s poles 
may present some contrasts with equatorial observations, which will help 
towards a settlement of the question. 
= 27? + (72+ 4) = 1.423. This coincidence is, of course, purely 
Prof. Barker communicated a “ Note on the exactitude of 
the French normal fork; a reply to the paper of Mr. A. J. 
Ellis; by Rudolph Konig, Ph.D,” of Paris; and said that 
the matter was one of great importance; for if Mr. Ellis’ 
attack could be sustained no confidence could be placed in 
