58 oJ. H. Lane on the Theoretical Temperature of the Sun. 
heat by radiation from the precipitated clouds. Prof. Espy’s 
theory of storms I first became acquainted with more than 
twenty years ago from lectures delivered by himself, and, origi- 
nal as I suppose it to be, and well supported as it is in the phe- 
nomena of terrestrial meteorology, I have long thought that 
Prof. Espy’s labors deserve a more general recognition than they 
have received abroad. It is not surprising, t erefore, i in a time 
when the constitution of the sun was exciting so much eens 
sion, that the above suggestions should have occurred to m 
self before I became aware of the very similar, and in the main 
identical, views of Prof. Faye, put forth in the Comptes Rendus. 
i sought to determine how far such a supposed constitution of 
the sun could be made to connect with the laws of the gases as 
received, containing Faye’s si tes of his t urse 
nothing is further from my p e than to nate aed kind fe) 
claim to any thing in that | Soa licetion, After becoming ac- 
quainted with his labors I still regarded the theory as seriously 
lacking, in its ie ee or mechanical aspect, the direct support 
of confirmatory o 1 
ject to rest until my friend Dr. Craig, in charge of the Chemical 
Laboratory of the Surgeon General's isepen without any singe 
edge of Faye’s memoir, or of my own suggestions previous. ly 
made to Prof. Henry and another sean friend, fell upon the 
same ideas of the sun’s constitution, availing himself, precisely 
as I had done, of Espy’s theory of storms. Dr. Craig’s id 
were communicated “3 a company of scientific gentlemen early 
last spring, and soon after, Prof. Neva of the U. S. Naval 
Observatory, aa into a general survey of the ae hy- 
pothesis. These communications of Dr. raig and Prof. New- 
- comb led me to enter into a renewed examination of the me- 
chanical embarrassment under which I had believed oe sear 
to labor. Not an as relying on my roug 
based on assumed high temperatures at the photosphere, the 
question was now inverted. Assuming the gaseous constitution, 
and assuming the laws expressed in oy raha s formule, known 
to aig the constitution of gases at common temperatures and 
shall we find to be the temperatures and densi- 
ties corspoding to the observed volume of the sun ares 
bad 
ea eg se om Ey a ee Nee aah eee Nets eter on eee Rm ae eM e e h) aE G re mee Cn en Nery os ony Ow nner et ee TO en 
