1877.] On the Spectra of Irresolvable Star -Clusters. 517 



"Albuminoid Ammonia" from air washings. 





By shaking. 



Aspiration. 



Grammes 

 per million 

 cub. metres. 



Grains 

 per million 

 cub. feet. 



Grammes 

 per million 

 cub. metres. 



Grains, 

 per million 

 cub. feet. 



Manchester, Dec. 2, 1876: dull, 











damp morning 



160 



70 



53 



23 





159 



69 



124 



54 



I have not, in my usual experiments, separated the solid particles of 

 the air, because we must breathe them. It was thought better to examine 

 them by what is called Wanklyn's process for organic nitrogen. My 

 reason for that is given elsewhere. I never did receive it as a method of 

 obtaining all the nitrogen in every substance ; but I did receive it, 

 and do so still, as a method of obtaining the ammonia of that which is 

 easily decomposed ; and only such substances are capable of producing 

 fermenting disease according to theory. 



No other person, so far as I know, has entered on this part of the 

 subject ; and it is the more interesting, as I have sufficiently shown that, 

 in the places examined, the organic ammonia has been in intimate rela- 

 tion with the gross death-rate. At the same time I do not find by this 

 method the form of organic matter in the air. It may be true that 

 oxygen is the prime mover, in man producing animal life — a favourite 

 idea for a chemist; but it may also be true that -minute organisms cause 

 a peculiar class of decomposition connected with mental or other activity, 

 diseased or otherwise. 



But my present object is explained. 



III. (C On a Cause for the Appearance of Bright Lines in the 

 Spectra of Irresolvable Star- Clusters/' By E. J. Stone, 

 M.A., F.R.S., Her Majesty's Astronomer, Cape of Good 

 Hope. Received August 13, 1877. 



In the ' Proceedings ' of the Royal Society for 1877, April 26, there is a 

 short paper by Mr. Huggins,in which some views of mine on this subject 

 are called in question. Mr. Huggins's objections are threefold : — 



1. " There are not found in the spectra of different nebulae the dif- 

 ferences of relative brightness of the bright lines and of the continuous 

 spectrum which would be expected on Mr. Stone's hypothesis. 



2. " The star-clusters which are just within the resolving-power of the 

 largest telescope do not give, even faintly, a spectrum of bright lines. 



VOL. XXVI. 2 o 



