SCIENCE. 



77 



of celestial mechanics. Added to this have been dis- 

 coveries abundantly confirming the theory of stellar 

 motion in groups, clusters and nebulas, " the places of 

 more than 200,000 stars having already been deter- 

 mined," and we have some conception of the vastness of 

 human achievements, and of the possibilities still await- 

 ing discoveries in this illimitable " field of ether." 



The universality and laws of primary force, denomin- 

 ated gravitation, have been subjects of exceeding inter- 

 est, as they pertain to this primary mode of motion. The 

 fact of an attractive Force acting ei'her upon or within 

 bodies by which they tend to approach each other, ar- 

 rested the attention, about the year 1600, of the elder 

 Galileo, who extended the principle to all terrestrial 

 bodies, Newton, eighty years afterward, studying this 

 principle, and at the suggestion, it is said, of the fall of 

 an apple, found that there was a definite increase of 

 velocity of bodies approaching the earth, and also that 

 the same kind of attractive force must apply to the moon, 

 while a centrifugal force, either generated from the at- 

 tractive force, or originated from an extraneous force, 

 continued this secondary planet around the earth. This 

 was the first grand step toward the discovery of the laws 

 of gravitation, applicable to the motion of the earth 

 around the sun, and, generally, to all planets. More 

 recently the principle has been applied to comets, stellar 

 and other masses. 



Geology, whle below chemistry in the order of nature 

 and classification, had made far less progress in develop- 

 ment at the commencement of the present century, a fact 

 which might have been presumed, inasmuch as the latter 

 science has ministered especially to the wants of man- 

 kind. According to Buckland, it was at that time " with- 

 out a name." The general features of geology had been 

 sketched by Leibnitz and Hooke more than a century 

 previous. Near the beginning of the present century 

 the outlines of the subject were classified into three 

 general divisions of formations — the primitive, the second- 

 ary and the tertiary. These became the subjects of investi- 

 gation, historically, in the order named. The first, 

 especially, by Werner, of Germany, who examined chiefly 

 the primitive and transition rocks. The second by Wm. 

 Smith (English), whose observations were first pub- 

 lished in 1799. The third by Cuvier and Brougniart 

 whose works upon " Organic Remains " and " Mineral 

 Geography" were published in 1808. During the past 

 half century this science has advanced with other 

 sciences, with vastly increased interest and success, 

 rendering this one of the most fascinating, especially in 

 more recent times, in yielding its stores of facts pertain- 

 ing to the glacial period, the deposition of metallic sub- 

 stances, experiments showing the order and conditions of 

 the cooling processes, resulting in the different mineral 

 states, and the wonderful revelations of paleontological 

 history, together with many other facts of great interest, 

 but which cannot, in this paper, be especially given. 

 These give abundant confirmation to the theory, that 

 immense periods of time, measured by millions of years, 

 have passed during this history, dissipating the doctrine 

 formerly held by many as taught in the Scriptures, that 

 the heavens and earth were created, out of nothing, 

 about six thousand years ago. 



Among the departments of science which minister to 

 the wants of human society, none has awakened the 

 spirit of invention and improvement at all to compire 

 with that of Mechanics. With the increase of knowl- 

 edge, there has been a correspondingly increasing de- 

 mand for instruments of discovery and analysis, not 

 only, but lor the application of scientific skill in the in- 

 vention of motive powers and the means of the trans- 

 mission of intelligence, as well as implements of handi- 

 craft, of agriculture, etc, The steam power, first utilized 

 by the invention of a machine in 1655, and improved by 

 Watt in 1774, inaugurated its grand work for human 

 society in 1806, when Robert Fulton, after repeated ex- 



periments, applied this power to the propulsion of vessels, 

 first on the Hudson river, amazing the thousands who 

 witnessed the successful experiment, and introducing a 

 new propelling power to vessels upon the sea, now bear- 

 ing their burdens, estimated by millions of tons, on 

 every river and over every lake and sea of earth. This 

 power has added incalculable millions to the material 

 wealth and strength of every civilized nation. The last 

 world-wide application of this power, besides its innu- 

 merous minor applications to all kinds of mechanxal 

 work, was inaugurated in 1821, when it was successfully 

 applied to the propulsion of railroad trains. 



In 1819 Electro-magnetism was first applied to me- 

 chanical purposes ; and in 1831 the Magnetic Telegraph, 

 for the transmission of intelligence, was invented and 

 successfully applied. And now, even the comparatively 

 coarse medium, air, has aided in business and social 

 communications, at trifling expense, by means of the re- 

 cently invented Telephone and the Phonograph. 



Chemistry has shared richly in the results of recent 

 scientific progress, and has ministered richly to the wants 

 of human society. Three centuries ago, Paracelsus 

 boasted of possessing the " philosopher's stone", by 

 which the baser metals were said to be transmuted into 

 gold ; but he gave a new direction to the efforts and ob- 

 jects of Alchemy, insisting that its chief aim should be 

 the preparation of medicines of different kinds for differ- 

 ent diseases. But Chemistry, as a science, must date its 

 commencement two centuries later, when the analyses of 

 distinguished scholars, as Scheele, of Sweden, and Dr. 

 Black, of Glasgow University, and the Academies of 

 Science at Berlin and Paris, determined important prin- 

 ciples of this science. 



The discoveries of Sir Humphrey Davy, in the early 

 part of the present century, gave a new impetus to this 

 branch, leading to chemical analyses and the establish- 

 ment of chemistry as a science. These have been follow- 

 ed by eras of progress which have brought the subject 

 to a high degree of perfection. Now, the four elements 

 of the ancients, and of the alchemists of comparatively 

 recent times — earth, air, fire, and water — have been found 

 by successive analyses to contain sixty-five elements, the 

 last four having been detected by the new and wonderful 

 method called the Spectrum Analysis. It may be here 

 stated what this method is, for the gratification of any 

 whose attention may not have been called especially to it. 



It is well known that a spectrum is an image formed 

 by the light of the sun, or any other luminous body, 

 either as direct or reflected rays, passing through a trian- 

 gular piece of gla's called a prism. The colored lines 

 thus formed by differently refracted and dispersed rays, 

 reveal the nature and qualities of the elements contained 

 in the luminous body by the different colors, combina- 

 tions, and the phenomena presented, compared with pre- 

 vious results of experiment in the laboratory, upon light 

 reflected from different mineral substances. It has been 

 found that every kind of mineral substance, whether in 

 the form of a sclid, gas, or nebulous matter, when in a 

 state of intense luminosity, possesses the capacity to emit 

 a specific color, with its accompanying mixed lines. This 

 being known, when a new body is analysed by its light, 

 its constituents are determined by the lines of light. Thus 

 the solar envelopes, protuberances, etc., of the sun are 

 examined by the analysis of the solar spectrum. By this 

 method, the character of comets, meteors, or other celes- 

 tial masses are determined. By this the problem of the 

 sudden appearance or disappearance of stellar masses is 

 explained, by determining the state of the mass thus 

 emitting light, and the conditions of luminosity. What 

 the telescope has failed to determine in respect to the 

 elements and qualities of bodies, or the nature of nebu- 

 lous masses, whether such masses are clusters of stars in 

 the infinite distance, or of original, unformed nebulous 

 matter, the spectroscope has accomplished ; and what has 

 been held by most astronomers as a theory, has become 



