454 The Fuel of the Sun. [October, 



intellect, and are accepted as actual physical existences, 

 they become very mischievous philosophical superstitions. 



I make this digression in order to repudiate any participa- 

 tion in this kind of speculation. Though " The Fuel of the 

 Sun " is avowedly a very bold attempt to unravel majestic 

 mysteries, I have not sought to elucidate the known by means 

 of the unknown, as do these inventors of imaginary agents, 

 but have scrupulously followed the opposite principle. I 

 have invented nothing, but have started from the experi- 

 mental facts of the laboratory, the demonstrated laws of 

 physical action, and have followed up step by step what I 

 understand to be the necessary consequences of these. 

 Many years ago, I convinced myself that our atmosphere is 

 but a portion of universal atmospheric matter, that Dr. 

 Wollaston was wrong, and that the compression of this 

 universal atmospheric matter is possibly the source of solar 

 light and heat; but as this was long before M. Deville had 

 investigated the subject of dissociation by heat,* I was 

 unable to work out the problem at all satisfactorily. When 

 I subsequently resumed the subject, I knew nothing about 

 the corona, and had only read of the " red prominences " as 

 possible lunar appendages, or solar clouds, or optical illu- 

 sions. I had worked out the necessity of the gaseous erup- 

 tions, and their action in effecting an interchange of solar 

 and general atmospheric matter, as the means of maintain- 

 ing the solar light and heat, with no idea of proceeding 

 further with the problem, when the announcement that the 

 prominences were not merely unquestionable solar appen- 

 dages, but were actually upheaved mountains of glowing 

 hydrogen, suddenly and unexpectedly suggested their identity 

 with my required atmospheric upheavals. It is true that 

 their observed magnitude far exceeded my theoretical antici- 

 pations, and in this respect I have made some & posteriori 

 adaptations, especially with the aid of a clearer under- 

 standing of the laws of dissociation which almost simul- 

 taneously became attainable. 



In like manner, the necessity of the solid ejections pre- 

 sented themselves before I knew anything of the recently- 

 discovered details of the coronal phenomena — when I had 

 merely read of a luminous halo which had been seen around 

 the sun, and vaguely supposed it to be due to some sort of 

 atmospheric illumination. I inferred that streams of solid 

 particles must be pouring from the sun, and showering back 

 again, but had no idea that such streams and showers were 



* My first memorandum on the subject is dated 23rd April, 1840, in a 

 " Register of Ideas," then commenced in very early student days. 



