322 Royal Society : — 



of which, according to the hypothesis of Sir Wm. Herschel, stars 

 are to be elaborated by subsidence and condensation, we should 

 expect a gaseous spectrum in which the groups of bright lines 

 were as numerous as the dark lines due to absorption which are 

 found in the spectra of the stars. Moreover, if the improbable 

 supposition be entertained, that the three bright lines indicate 

 matter in its most elementary forms, still we should expect to find in 

 some of the nebulae, or in some parts of them, a more advanced 

 state towards the formation of a number of separate bodies, such 

 as exist in our sun and in the stars ; and such an advance in the 

 process of formation into stars would have been indicated by a more 

 complex spectrum. 



My observations, as far as they extend at present, seem to be in 

 favour of the opinion that the nebulae which give a gaseous spectrum, 

 are systems possessing a structure, and a purpose in relation to the 

 universe, altogether distinct and of another order from the great 

 group of cosmical bodies to which our sun and the fixed stars belong. 



The nebulous star t Orionis was examined, but no peculiarity 

 could be detected in its continuous spectrum*. 



"Further Observations on the Planet Mars." By John Phillips, 

 M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. F.G.S. 



The return of Mars to his periodical opposition with the sun has 

 enabled me to offer a few observations on this planet, in addition 

 to those which on a former occasion I had the honour to present to 

 the Society f. Among the subjects then suggested for considera- 

 tion was the permanence of the main features of light and shade 

 which had been recognized by many observers. Another question 

 requiring attention referred to the fogginess or seeming cloudiness of 

 the planet, also noticed by many observers, some of whom repre- 

 sented what might be thought effects of currents in the atmosphere 

 round him. Again, it was a matter for further research whether 

 the colours of what we suppose to be land and sea (the reddish hue 

 of the land, and the grey aspect of the sea) were capable of expla- 

 nation by any peculiarity of the soil or atmosphere, and whether, 

 from the phenomena of snows visible about the poles and elsewhere, 

 the climate of Mars could be estimated on trustworthy grounds. 



My observations are too few to furnish answers for ail these ques- 

 tions ; but I have something to say in reply to some of them, though 

 the distance of Mars from the Earth during the late opposition was 

 too great to allow of such close scrutiny as in 1862. 



First, then, in respect of the permanence of the main features 

 of the planet. I submit several drawings^ made between the 14th 



* Admiral Smyth appears to have always maintained that the results of 

 telescopic observation on the nebulas were insufficient to support the opinion that 

 all these objects were probably of stellar constitution. See his ' Cycle of Celestial 

 Objects,' vol. i. p. 316 ; and his ' Speculum Hartwellianum,' pp. 111-114. 



t Phil. Mag. S. 4. vol. xxvi. p. 312. 



j Preserved for reference in the Archives ; an equatorial projection is given in 

 Plate H. 



