464 Pleasant Ways in Science. 



Why should not its very material be condensed in this place, 

 and renewed or re-etherized in that ? To be anything which 

 concerns phtjsical science, this ether must be a form of matter; 

 and if so, why should not we consider it as an atmosphere 

 common to all worlds, and possessing properties, in reference 

 to all the host of heaven, bearing some analogy to the pro- 

 perties which an individual atmosphere bears to an individual 

 globe ? 



In a former number of the Intellectual Observer, an in- 

 strument, the " Rigid Spectroscope," an invention of Mr. 

 Browning, was described as devised for the performance of 

 some experiments suggested by Mr. Balfour Stewart. That 

 able physicist wished to see whether, by moving a spectroscope 

 from a low latitude to a high one, and thus materially changing 

 the force of gravity, any motion, however slight, would be made 

 in the position of certain spectrum lines. In point of fact, he 

 wished to try whether light could be weighed. We believe 

 the Admiralty will assist in the investigation, and that before 

 long a ship will carry the instrument to some appropriate 

 place. There are only two probable suppositions with respect 

 to light, heat, and other so-called "imponderables," either that 

 the ether whose vibrations they are supposed to be, could be 

 weighed if apparatus of sufficient delicacy were contrived, or 

 that gravitation is not an essential quality pertaining to matter 

 under all conditions; but uniformly making its appearance 

 under certain conditions. The inquiry is full of interest, and 

 when conducted to a successful issue, will open the way to 

 some of the widest and grandest of investigations that science 

 has reached. 



Chemistry opens before us very curious questions of iden- 

 tity and sameness. It shows us instances of the same sub- 

 stances having widely different properties in different condi- 

 tions. The chemist recognizes two singular classes of bodies, 

 the one he terms isomeric and the other allotropie. The iso- 

 meric consists of substances differing widely in appearance and 

 properties, and yet composed of the same proportions, of the 

 same materials. In some of these bodies the quantities of the 

 elements are the same in actual weight, in others the propor- 

 tion is kept, but the quantities may be twice as great, or even 

 thirty times as great. The separate bodies of an isomeric 

 series receive separate names, but allotropic bodies of the 

 same pair or series have only one name, being considered as 

 the same thing in two or more different states. Phosphorus is 

 known in several states. Professor Miller says, "Phosphorus 

 assumes several different forms under the influence of causes 

 apparently trifling. The transparent variety when kept exposed 

 to light under water assumes a second form, which is white and 



