wo 
© 
oe 
[Chase. 
THE HERSCHELL-STEPHENSON POSTULATE. 
By Purny Harte CHAsE. 
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, March 1st, 1872.) 
Of the three postulates which I submitted to the Society at its last 
meeting, I presume the first will generally be considered the most ques- 
tionable. The hypothesis of Herschel and Stephenson, that the coal con- 
sumed under our boilers merely imparts, to the steam, solar energies . 
which have been imprisoned for ages by the molecular attraction of the 
carbon particles, has been commonly accepted as a beautiful poetical 
fancy, having, perhaps, some indefinite foundation in truth. Few per- 
sons, however, can have indulged the expectation that so vague asurmise 
would ever yield any satisfactory numerical results, and it will not be 
strange if even the close coincidences to which it has led me, may be 
regarded by many as merely accidental. 
The following comparisons show the character of the agreement 
between estimates of solar distance, mass, and parallax, based upon 
various chemical and astronomical observations : 
I. By FLuame ANALYSIS. 
According to Experiments of Distance. Mass. Parallax. 
/ 
PTO W Sia. t ccna sto 93,631,000. - 340, 950 
Favre and Silbermann. . 92,471,000 338, 430 
Gigssi 2 we 92,466,000 328,870 
DUONG cde ens es 92,363,000 327,290 
EIGES etc ee ee ae 92,298, 000 326,590 
II. By AstrRonomicaL COMPUTATION. 
According to Calculations of Distance. Mass. Parallax. 
ad 
BNCKO ess are res is cee 95,811,000 359, 630 8.576 
lias Si. ee ce 93,309, 000 337,440 8.76 
INGWCOMID) <6. .05 60.3% 92,380,000 327,480 8.848 
ep eee deectth 92,152,000 325,040 8.87 
Stone, corrected........ 91,945,000 322,900 8.89 
Hansencis; <seiec ass 91,672,000 319,990 8.9165 
StOH6. vos es ieee 91,512,000 318,320 8.932 
Leverrier 91,329, 000. 316,470 8.95 
91,186,000 314,930 8.964 
My own faith in the significance of such coincidences, and in their sug- 
gestive value as indications of an instructive, intelligent as well as intel- 
ligible, purpose in nature, inclines me to the acceptance of speculations, 
based on thermodynamic, spectroscopic, and analogous theories, even 
before all their premises have been recognized as either axiomatic or 
rigidly demonstrable. The desirableness, however, of completing the 
