THE QUARTERLY 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



OCTOBER, 1871. 



I. THE FUEL OF THE SUN. 

 By W. Mattieu Williams, F.C.S. 



T the suggestion of the editor, I offer to the readers of 

 the " Quarterly Journal of Science " the following 

 sketch of the main argument worked out more fully in 

 the essay I have published under the above title, hoping 

 that many who hesitate to plunge into a presumptuous 

 speculative work of more than 200 octavo pages may read 

 this article, and reflect upon the subject. 



The book has been handled in a most courteous and 

 indulgent spirit by all the reviewers who have noticed it, 

 but none have ventured to grapple with the argument it 

 contains, although every possible opportunity and provoca- 

 tion for doing so is designedly afforded. It all rests upon 

 the question which is discussed in the first three chapters, 

 viz., Whether the atmosphere which surrounds our earth is 

 limited or unlimited in extent ? If my reasoning upon this 

 fundamental question is refuted, all that follows necessarily 

 falls to the ground. If I am right, all our standard treatises 

 on pneumatics and meteorology, which repeat the arguments 

 contained in Dr. Wollaston's celebrated paper, must be re- 

 modelled. At the outset, I reprint that paper, and point 

 out a very curious and monstrous fallacy which, for half a 

 century, has remained undetected, and has been continually 

 repeated. As the main point of issue between myself and 

 Dr. Wollaston is merely a question of very simple arithmetic 

 and geometry, nothing can be easier than to set me right if 

 I am wrong ; and, as the philosophical consequences 

 depending upon this issue are of vast and fundamental 

 importance, the question cannot be ignored by those who 

 stand before the world as scientific authorities, without a 

 practical abdication of their philosophical responsibilities. 

 Any man who publishes an astronomical or meteorological 

 treatise without discussing this question, which stands 

 before him at the threshold of his subject, is unfit for the 

 task he has undertaken, and unworthy of public confidence. 



VOL. VIII. (O.S.)— VOL. I. (N.S.) 3 L 



