218 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
volves a vast waste by the sun, and experiment shows that the sun would be ex- 
hausted and cooled down in 5,000 years if not replenished from some source. 
The earth is passing around the sun once a year over a path 555,000,000 miles 
long, traveling at the rate of 68,000 miles an hour. ‘The speed of our flight is 
eighty times more rapid than the swiftest flying cannon ball. If the globe should 
strike a dead wall passing at this great speed, the concussion, we are told, would 
burn it instantly, creating a heat of which we have no comprehension; and yet 
the heat produced by such a catastrophe would not be sufficient to last the sun’s 
waste for a period of thirty days. 
We are taught, however, that if the earth should let go its place in space 
and be attracted into the sun, that body, being 325,000 times more than the 
earth, and, therefore, possessing 325,000 times more power of attraction, its 
immense pull would draw us in with such a velocity that the kinetic force gath- 
ered in the passage would produce an impact in striking that would give off heat 
sufficient to last the sun’s waste for a period of ninety-one years. 
In any hour of a clear night that we watch we shall see at least six or eight 
stars fall. These stars are simply small pieces of iron gathered and formed in 
space that have fallen into our atmosphere in our flight around the sun; that is, 
have been attracted into the orbit of the world and picked up. Coming into our at- 
mosphere when it is passing with such velocity creates a friction—a concussion— 
an arrest of motion, that immediately burns the iron. We see the explosion and 
call it a falling star. If an unaided eye can see six fall in one hour of the night, 
then what a vast shower must be constantly attracted by the whole earth. If the 
little earth with its slight power of attraction brings in such a constant shower of 
cosmic matter, how much more would be attracted by the sun, possessing 325,- 
ooo times more power of attraction than the earth. Such is the case, we are 
told, and our grand constant shower of cosmic matter is constantly falling into 
that body, forming a vast corona extending out from the sun 800,000 miles, by 
the clashing and impinging of particles aad resultant burning. Thus, by virtue 
of the law of attraction, one constant stream of matter, which is energy, 1s 
pouring into the sun to replenish its waste. This matter must be formed in space, 
and is simply an aggregation of energy, or fire-mist, that pervades the atmos- 
phere. 
The cosmic matter that falls on the earth, that is meteoric matter, is about 
85 per cent. iron, and is merely an aggregation of iron-dust, which is itself an 
aggregation of invisible fire-mist. Great clouds of this fine iron-dust gather in the 
heavens, and are occasionally attracted into our orbit. On striking our atmos- 
phere, flying with such great speed, the concussion, the arrest of motion, in- 
stantly burns the iron-dust and produces light colored according to the surround- 
ing conditions that produce the refraction. ‘This theory is not without its objec- 
tions, and the chief one is perhaps the fact of these lights occurring toward the 
poles. This objection, I think, can be met, however, in the conditions that produce 
refractions of light, but our article affords no space to enter upon that field. 
