1887.] 



Researches on the Spectra of Meteorites. 



133 



these bright spaces Dr. Copeland gives some bright regions which, I 

 think, have not been touched by the arguments of Vogel and Duner 

 above referred to. It will be observed that in the case of R. Gemi- 

 norum, given on the same map as Nova and a Orionis, the bright lines 

 correspond almost exactly with the bright spaces shown in the above- 

 named stars and certain lines seen in meteorites — that is to say, a 

 meteorite glow, when the carbon spectrum is bright, gives us all the 

 lines recorded in the spectrum of the star, showing that some of the 

 lines correspond with the brightest flutings of carbon. 



There can be no question, I think, that in R Geminorum we have 

 another stage, doubtless a prior stage, of the life-history not only of 

 the Nova, but of a Orionis itself. 



III. The spectra of meteorites glowing in tubes with the bright 

 lines observed in celestial bodies — 



(a) Comparison with the lines seen in nebulae when C and 

 F (bright) are either present or absent. 



(0) Comparison with bright lines (not associated with 

 flutings) seen in stars. 



a. "Nebulae" 



Only seven lines in all have been recorded up to the present in the 

 spectra of nebulae, three of which coincide with lines in the spectrum 

 of hydrogen and three correspond to lines in magnesium. The 

 magnesium lines represented are the ultra-violet low-temperature line 

 at 373, the line at 470, and the remnant of the magnesium fluting at 

 500, the brightest part of the spectrum at the temperature of the 

 bunsen burner. The hydrogen lines are h, F, and B>/ (434). Some- 

 times the 500 line is seen alone, but it is generally associated with F 

 and a line at 495. The remaining lines do not all appear in one 

 nebula, but are associated one by one with the other three lines. The 

 lines at 500 and 495 and F have been seen in the glow of the 

 Dhurmsala meteorite when heated, but the origin of 495 has not yet 

 been determined. 



The result of this comparison then is that the nebula spectrum is 

 as closely associated with a meteorite glowing very gently in a very 

 tenuous atmosphere given off by itself as is the spectrum of a comet 

 near the sun with a meteorite glowing in a denser one also given off 

 by itself when more highly heated. 



Further, it has been seen that the nebula spectrum was exactly 

 reproduced in the comets of 1866 and 1867, when away from the sun. 

 As the collision of meteorites is accepted for the explanation of the 

 phenomena in one case, it must, faute de mieux, be accepted for the 

 other. The well-known constituents of meteorites, especially olivine, 



