4382 J. N. Lockyer—Kzuistence of Elements in the Sun. 
I have asked myself eed all the above facts cannot be 
grouped together in a working hypothesis which assumes that 
in the reversing layers | of the sun and stars various degrees of 
“celestial dissociation” are at work, which dissociation prevents 
the coming together of the atoms which, at the temperature of 
the earth and all artificial temperatures yet attained here, com- 
pose the metals, the metalloids, and compounds. 
n this working hypothesis, the so-called elements not a 
ent in the reversing layer of a star will be in course of form 
tion in the coronal atmosphere and in course of destruction i 
their vapor-densities carry them down; and their absorption 
will not only be small in consequence of the reduced pressure 
of that region, but what absorption there is will probably be 
limited wholly or in great part to the invisible violet end of the 
spectrum in the ease of such bodies as the pure gases and their 
SS and chlorine. (See I, ante.) 
The spectroscopic evidence as to what may be called the 
plasticity of the molecules of the metalloids, including of course 
oxygen and nitrogen, but excluding h ydrogen , is so overwhelm- 
ing, that even the absorption of iodine, although generally it is 
neo seagre to violet light, may (as I have found ina repetition 
ndrews experiments on the dichroism of iodine, in 
which I observed the spectrum) in part be driven into the violet 
end of the spectrum, for iodine in a solution in water or alcohol 
at once gives up its ordinary absorption properties, and stops 
violet light.* 
A preliminary comparison of the ordinary absorption spec- 
- trum of a stratum of 6 ft. of chlorine renders it not improbable 
that chlorine at a low temperature is the cause of some of the 
Fraunhofer lines in the violet, although, as said before, I have 
not yet obtained certain evidence as + ‘the reversal of the bright 
lines of chlorine seen in the jar-s 
There is also an Acarent ediinidehen between some of the 
faint Fraunhofer lines and some “ the lines of the low tem- 
perature absorption-spectrum of i 
Should subsequent researches oneetnes the probability of 
cr working hypothesis, it seems ible that iron meteorites 
be associated with the metallic stars and stony meteorites 
with metalloidal and compound stars. Of the iron group of 
metals in the sun, iron and nickel are those which exist in 
ings —— as I have determined from the number of 
ines rev Other striking facts, such as the presence of 
hydrogen ' in ages might also be referred to. 
An interesting physical speculation connected with this work- 
ing hypothesis is the effect on the period of duration of a star’s 
_ *T have since obtained the same result by observing the absorption of I. vapor 
in a white-hot tube. 
