Chase.J ^7b [April 15, 



tion of arithmetical repetitions of a fundamental wave-length, which is 

 harmonically related to cosmical nodes. 



The third order is the one which first attracted my attention,* consisting 

 of groups of wavelengths which are in harmonic instead of geometric pro- 

 gression, and indicating, like the first order, a want of complete homo- 

 geneity. 



These three orders are variously blended in the spectra of so-called 

 chemical elements. The character of the blending may, perhaps, serve as 

 a guide towards the resolution of the spectra into simpler constituents. 



44. ^ther, Corona, Hydrogen. 



In a communication to the Society, on the 18th of December, 1863, I 

 showed that there is some elastic influence between Sun and Earth, which 

 enables us to form approximate estimates of Sun's mass and distance. At 

 the close of the communication was the following paragraph.f 



"The revolution of the Sun around the great Central Sun must also 

 cause barometric fluctuations that may possibly be measured by delicate 

 instruments and long and patient observations. The Torricellian column 

 may thus become a valuable auxiliary in verifying or rectifying our esti- 

 mates of the distances and masses of the principal heavenly bodies." 



In various subsequent communications I have shown that electricity, 

 magnetism, solar gravitation and rotation, planetary and stellar positions, 

 spectral lines, chemical afiinity, thermal energy, and other physical mani- 

 festations, X furnish marked indications of an all-pervading elastic medium, 

 vibrating with the velocity of light, and subject to the same laws of har- 

 monic nodal action as have been found to influence the air and other elastic 

 bodies. 



The observations upon the solar eclipse of 1869, by Morton, Winlock 

 Young, Pickering, Harkness and others, disclosed an important line in the 

 solar spectrum, which corresponds very nearly to 1474 of Kirchhofi's scale, 

 and is now styled 1474 K, or "the corona line." Father Secchi attributed 

 the line to hydrogen ; Dr. Gould thought it identical with the auroral line, 

 and therefore due to some substance which, as stated by Lockyer, § " may 

 possibly be present in the higher regions of our own atmosphere." 



Lockyer || considers the observations as indicating "an enormous envelope 

 of hydrogen, probably in the average twelve minutes high," as well as 

 " the existence of some unknown element extending further from the pho- 

 tosphere even than hydrogen." In the eclipse of 1870, "at the same time 

 that this line was observed to extend to a distance of 30' from the Sun, the 

 lines of hydrogen were observed eight minutes above the Sun." Here are, 

 therefore, probable evidences of two successive stages of sethereal condensa- 

 tion. It has " been shown by Salet, Schuster and others, that " all the hy- 



* lb., xvii, 109-12, 297-301. 



tAnte, ix., 2S8 ; Phil. Mag. [4], xxviii, 59. 



{Ante, ix.xiv; xvi, sqq.; P.Mag. [4], vols. 30, 32, 34, 35, 50; [5], 1-6, 10, 11. 



isolar Physics, p. 269. 



1 lb. p. 413, 



