THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



♦ 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 



JUNE 1866. 



LXI. On the Spectra of some of the Fixed Stars. By William 

 Huggins, F.R.A.S., andW. A. Miller, M.D., LL.D., Treas. 

 and V. P. U.S., Professor of Chemistry, King's College, London*. 



[With Two Plates.] 



§ I. Introduction, 



1. r B^HE recent discovery by Kirchhoffof the connexion between 

 A the dark lines of the solar spectrum and the bright lines 

 of terrestrial flames, so remarkable for the wide range of its ap- 

 plication, has placed in the hands of the experimentalist a method 

 of analysis which is not rendered less certain by the distance of 

 the objects the light of which is to be subjected to examination. 

 The great success of this method of analysis as applied by Kirch- 

 hoff to the determination of the nature of some of the consti- 

 tuents of the sun, rendered it obvious that the application of 

 this new method of analysis to the light which reaches the earth 

 from the fixed stars would be an investigation of the highest in- 

 terest, in relation to our knowledge of the general plan and 

 structure of the visible universe. Hitherto the knowledge pos- 

 sessed by man of these immensely distant bodies has been almost 

 confined to the fact that some of them, which observation 

 shows to be united in systems, are composed of matter sub- 

 jected to the same laws of gravitation as those which rule the 

 members of the solar system. To this may be added the high 

 probability that they must be self-luminous bodies analogous to 

 our sun, and probably in some cases even transcending it in 

 brilliancy. Were they not self-luminous, it would be impos- 

 sible for their light to reach us from the enormous distances at 



* From the Philosophical Transactions for 1864, Part II. Communicated, 

 with additional notes, by the Authors. 



Phil Mag.S 4. Vol. 31. No. 211. June 1866. 2E 



