18 



Mr. J. Ennis an the Origin of the Poxoet 



front, which is compressed and made to give out its abundant 

 latent heat. Had the meteors themselves been so vividly in- 

 candescent, their brightness would have continued another 

 twinkling of an eye before they struck the earth. Had friction 

 been the cause of the heat, their light would have become 

 brighter in the dense lower atmosphere, where invariably their 

 light goes out, albeit gravity hastens their velocities. I pointed 

 out in that paper the fallacies in the reasonings of high autho- 

 rities who thought they had proved that meteoric light is due 

 to friction. 









Number of grains 









of air in cylinder 









1 mile long and 





Number of volumes 





1 foot in diame- 



Height, 



corresponding to 



Number of degrees of 



ter. Weight at 



in miles. 



1 volume at the surface 



latent heat. 



surface of the 





of the earth. 





earth = 2342S47 

 grains, = 334-69 

 pounds avoirdu- 

 pois. 



343 



2 



144 



1171424 



6-86 



4 



432 



585712 



10-29 



8 



1008 



292856 



13-72 



16 



2160 



146428 



17-15 



32 



4464 



73214 



20-58 



64 



9072 



36607 



24 01 



128 



18288 



18303 



27-44 



256 



36720 



9152 



30-87 



512 



73584 



4576 



34-30 



1024 



147312 



2288 



37-73 



2048 



294768 



1144 



41-16 



4096 



589680 



572 



44-59 



8192 



1179504 



286 



48-02 



16384 



2359152 



143 



51-45 



32768 



4718448 



72 



54-88 



65536 



9437040 



36 



58-31 



131072 



18874224 



18 



61-74 



262144 



37748592 



9 



65-17 



524288 



75497328 



4 



68-60 



1048576 



150994800 



2 



102-90 



1073741824 



154618822512 



5-i~2 



137-20 



1099511627776 



158329674399600 



1 



^2 42 8 8 



17150 



1125899906842624 



162129586585337712 



38"6"^ 7"0 9 1 2 



205-80 



1152921504606846976 



1 66020096663385964400 



ITTS 7 T> "5 STTj 8 8"8 



The point of most intense interest in the Table of Marsh 

 is the wonderfully large amount of latent heat in an almost 

 infinitesimally small amount of the air. Look at the lower 

 line in the Table ; how immense is the physical force ! and how 

 minute is the amount of matter ! and yet the two are physi- 

 cally coupled. Here is a wonder w 7 hich leads to the very 

 gravest consequences. It is an image of the sun. The amount 

 of matter in that great orb is infinitesimally small when com- 



