KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



225 



THE MOON'S RAYS. 



Plac'd in the spangled sky, with visage bright, 

 'l he full-orb'd moon her radiant beams displays ; 

 But 'neatli the vivid sun's more splendid rays, 

 Sinks all her charms, and fades her lovely light. 



EVER WAS THERE A TIME 



when people felt so anxious 

 as they now do, to learn the 

 why and because of what is 

 passing daily before them. 

 Curiosity has been awakened ; 

 sensible books have been pub- 

 lished at a cheap cost ; and the mind, once 

 aroused, seeks pleasure in what is profitable. 

 Let us hope that this laudable thirst for 

 knowledge will spread. The more we know, 

 the better members of society are we likely 

 to become. Our old folk blush at their 

 ignorance, and regret the follies of their 

 youth. Let them be made wise thereby, and 

 teach their children what will benefit them 

 through life. This is a suitable atonement 

 for neglected opportunities. 



The Sun's rays, as is well known, con- 

 sist of three distinct species— viz , rays of 

 heat, rays of light, and deoxidising rays, the 

 latter being so named from their influence 

 in separating oxygen from its combinations. 

 The rays of light are again separable by the 

 prism into several rays, all varying in color 

 from each other ; the red ray on the one 

 hand, and the violet on the other, forming 

 the opposite extreme edges of the rainbow 

 fan into which the sun's light is refracted 

 by the prism — the red ray being the least re- 

 frangible, and the violet ray the most so. 



In the focus of the red ray, the heating 

 rays are most intense ; while, on the con- 

 trary, the oxidising rays are most intense in 

 the focus of the violet ray — both the heating 

 and deoxidising rays diminishing in intensity 

 on approximating to the centre of the rain- 

 bow fan, beyond which the presence of either 

 is but in a slight degree indicated by the usual 

 tests. The sun's heating rays are not reflected 

 back to the earth by the moon ; while on the 

 contrary, the deoxidising rays seem evidently 

 to be so, in at least an equal degree with the 

 rays of light ; and to this is attributable the 

 greater proportion of the hitherto inexplica- 

 ble phenomena produced by the moon on the 

 surface of our planet. 



To the influence of the sun's deoxidising 

 rays is wholly or mainly referable the extri- 

 cation of oxygen from living vegetables, the 

 ripening of fruits and grain, the tarnishing 

 of colors, the decomposition of animal and 

 vegetable matter, and the extinguishing of 

 combustion ; for combustion being simply a 

 chemical union of oxygen with a combustible 

 body, whatever counteracts that union must 

 counteract or altogether extinguish com- 

 bustion. The fact of the deoxidising 



rays of the sun counteracting combustion, is 

 so duly appreciated by the clearing parties 

 in New South Wales (though ignorant, of 

 course, of the cause), that they invariably 

 prefer the night time for burning off the 

 timber, finding the combustion proceeds then 

 with infinitely greater intensity than during 

 the day. Now, most of, if not all, these 

 effects are produced in nearly as great, and 

 often in a greater degree, by the moon's rays 

 than by those of the sun ; showing that the 

 sun's deoxidising rays are reflected back to 

 the earth by the moon equally with the rays 

 of light. 



The finer colors of silk are tarnished by 

 the moon's rays, the same as by the sun's ; 

 fires are extinguished by the former the same 

 as by the latter ; the bleaching of linen pro- 

 ceeds even more rapidly in moon than in 

 sun-light ; and the ripening of fruits and 

 grain almost equally so ; while meat and fish 

 become more quickly putrescent in the 

 moon's rays than in the sun's, a fact well 

 known to all ships' stewards. The latter 

 curious circumstance is explainable by our 

 knowledge of oxygen being a constituent of 

 almost all vegetable and animal bodies ; 

 therefore, whatever tends to separate this, 

 must either materially alter or entirely de- 

 stroy their substances. 



On new-killed meat being exposed to the 

 sun's rays, its exterior is dried and hardened 

 by the sun's heating rays ; and a species of 

 crust is thus formed around it, guarding from 

 the decomposing influence of the deoxidising 

 rays, like the tin cases enveloping preserved 

 meats ; the preservative effects of the pyro- 

 ligneous and other acids being also referable 

 to the hardened exterior crust produced. 

 The moon's rays, however, being destitute 

 of heat, no such protecting crust can be 

 consequently formed ; the meat and the fish 

 exposed to them remaining in a soft moist 

 state, and therefore being more readily acted 

 upon by the above rays — moisture being 

 almost essential to animal and vegetable de- 

 composition. The moister state of linen 

 during the night than the day, accounts 

 in some measure also for "bleaching being 

 more rapid by moon than by sun -light. 

 It is a curious fact, as connected with this, 

 that linens bleach quicker when spread upon 

 the green grassy sward, than when spread 

 upon stones, or hung upon rails. This is 

 doubtless owing to the grass, like other ve- 

 getables, absorbing oxygen when screened 

 from the influence of the deoxidising rays, 

 and thereby assisting the bleaching, by ab- 

 sorbing the oxygen of the coloring matter of 

 the linen as fast as extricated by the above 

 rays. 



Many metallic oxides and vegetable dyes, 

 which, like living vegetables, have their 

 oxygen separated from them by exposure to 



Vol. III.— 15. 



