ARTICLE IV. 



THOUGHTS ON TUB INFLUENCE OF ETHER IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. ITS RELATIONS TO THE ZODIACAL LIGHT, 

 COMETS, THE SEASONS, AND PERIODICAL SHOOTING STARS. 



BY ALEXANDER WILCOCKS, M.l). 



Bead May 20, 1804. 



In undertaking the investigation of a subject whose history runs back into remote anti- 

 quity, one is met by obstacles which do not interfere with an inquiry into a more recent 

 theme. 



These difficulties lie chiefly in two of the customs of Eastern nations, viz., the mingling 

 together of fact and fable, and the confounding of two ideas under one name. 



The question might be pertinently asked, How are we concerned in what the Hindoos or 

 the Greeks thought about ether? The answer appears practically in the fact, that the 

 minds of some of the most eminent astronomers of the day have been biased by the views 

 of these ancient peoples. 



It is impossible for us to determine who or what first gave rise to the idea of the exist- 

 ence of such a fluid as ether; it was probably akin to that which avers that "Nature ab- 

 hors a vacuum." If so, the conjecture, true though it be, merits no higher consideration 

 than that of a sublime guess. 



' : Among the natural philosophers of India, ether (dkd'sa) was regarded as belonging to 

 the pantschatd, or five elements, and was supposed to be a fluid of infinite subtlety, per- 

 vading the whole universe, and constituting the medium of exciting life as well as of pro- 

 pagating sound." 



" In the dogmas of the Ionic philosophy of Anaxagoras and Empedocles, this ether 

 (aiOrjp) differed wholly from the actual (denser) vapor charged (<%) which surrounds the 

 earth, and probably extends as far as the moon." It was of a " fiery nature, a brightly 

 beaming, pure fire air, of great subtlety and eternal serenity." 



" The natural philosophy of Aristotle further teaches that the ethereal substance pene- 

 trates all the living organisms of the earth, both plants and animals ; that it becomes in 

 these the principle of vital heat, the very germ of a psychical principle, which, uninflu- 

 enced by the body, stimulates men to independent activity."* 



* Cosmos, vol. iii, chap. 1. 



VOL. xiii. — 10 



