178 THE CHEMISTRY OF THE STARS. 



At the present time we have tens of thousands of facts which were 

 not available twenty-five years ago. All these go to the support of the 

 hypothesis, and among them I must indicate the results obtained at 

 the last eclipse, dealing with the atmosphere of the sun in relation to 

 that of the various stars of higher temperature to which I called your 

 attention. In this way we can easily explain the enhanced lines of iron 

 existing practically alone in Alpha Oygni. I have yet to learn any 

 other explanation. 



I have nothing to take back, either from what I then said or what I 

 have said since on this subject, and although the view is not yet 

 accepted, I am glad to know that many other lines of work which are 

 now being prosecuted tend to favor it. 



I have no hesitation in expressing my conviction that in a not distant 

 future the inorganic evolution to which we have been finally led by 

 following up Fraunhofer's useless experiment will take its natural place 

 side by side with that organic evolution the demonstration of which has 

 been one of the glories of the nineteenth century. 



And finally now comes the moral of my address. If I have helped to 

 show that observations having no immediate practical bearing may yet 

 help on the thought of mankind, and that this is a thing worth the 

 doing, let me express a hope that such work shall find no small place 

 in the future University of Birmingham. 



