378 
“A MESSAGE FROM THE STARS.” 
By ROBERT HUNT, F.R.S. 
A H attentive study of the philosophy of the experimental 
sciences, will speedily lead to the conviction, that many 
of the simplest phenomena, which, from their constant re- 
currence, are ordinarily regarded as common-place and insig- 
nificant, contain the germs of truths of the most exalted 
character. The laundress who spat upon her smoothing-iron 
to determine if it was hot enough for her purpose, never dreamed 
of the “ spheroidal state ” of matter, or fancied that her simple 
test would lead to important discoveries in connection with 
heat, or advance us to the magical experiment of freezing water 
in red-hot vessels. Yet so it was. 
With the spontaneous evaporation of water — the drying of 
linen for example — everyone has been acquainted for ages. 
Yet this diffusion of vapour into the air failed to teach man a 
great truth until recently. The adhesion of water to a perfectly 
smooth and clean piece of glass, and the “ sucking up ” of the 
same fluid by a sponge, or by a lump of white sugar, though 
constantly observed, never instructed the observer until lately 
in the action of material surfaces on fluids and gases, or indicated 
to him the existence of a Force, or Forces, surrounding every 
atom, which appear capable of exerting an intense mechanical 
power of condensation. The careful study of these phenomena 
has, however, gradually advanced us from one discovery to 
another, until it has enabled us to read with precision a great 
truth, brought to us by a Meteorite, which once moved in the 
remote spaces through which comets travel, and where nebulae 
are slowly concreting into worlds. It is necessary for the correct 
understanding of the curious results obtained by Mr. Graham, 
which have advanced our knowledge by certain steps, to the 
remarkable discovery of the Occlusion of Hydrogen Gas by 
Meteoric Iron , that we should concisely trace the progress of 
the enquiry from its earliest development. 
To Dr. Priestley * we are indebted for the earliest observations 
* Priestley, u Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air,” 
iii. p. 29. 
