the sun in intensity, we may well feel certain 
tnat we have but initiated experiments, which 
others coming after us, will follow up with 
energy, and that results will be arrived at, of 
which, at present, we can have no conception. 
Stephenson had more than a glimmering of 
the truth when lie said that the locomotive 
engines, with all their immense power, were 
driren by sunbeams. 
In a paper having more pretension to 
Fysteraatic arrangement or to regular treatise, 
one would enlarge upon the theory, generally 
accepted, as to the cause of these colored bands 
in the spectrum, i.e., that the vapours of the 
respective substances have the property of ab- 
sorbing libt of the same degree of refrangibi- 
lity as their own, and of transmitting all other 
— and this to sueh an extent that, by placing 
behind the fl »me under examination, any in- 
candescent body giving a continuous spectrum 
of sufficient intensity, wj reverse the spectrum 
of the former substance and change the 
colored b in<ls into dark ones. Hence we con- 
clude that the dark lines in the solar spectrum 
are the reverse of what the sol »r atmosphere 
would present if there were not behind it a 
most intensely heated body, rever-ing wliat 
would otherwise have been colored bands, and 
rendering them bla< k. 
From this we deduce that the sun is really 
an ineande-cent solid body. Further, upon 
ascertaining what substances give colored 
bauds corresponding exactly with the dark 
lines in the solar spectrum, we arrive at a 
knowledge of some of the components of the 
solar atmosphere, and consequently of the sun 
itself. 
The spec<ra of some stars and nebi Ise would 
seem to prove that, in many nebu'ae, there is no 
solid nucleus. Further ob ervations ate, how- 
ever, necessary in spectrum matters, for, in a 
letter to the editor of “ G>sni s,” M Moren 
stites that the sp ctru n of iron, as shown by a 
Bunsen’s battery of 65 elements, gives lin. s 
almost innumerable — that the yellow lines of 
sodium are found in the spectrum of mercury ; 
and Dr. Frankland finds the lithium specttum 
exhibiting a splendid blue-line like strontium. 
A paper by Mr. Alexander Waugh was read 
at the meeting of the British Association at 
Bath, in 1861, upon the spectra of Polarised 
Light , which contained some curious dis- 
coveries in connection with this subject. The 
instruments used by some observers are, in 
power, very different from the one shown. 
Thus M. Gassiot’s splendu instrument at Kcvv 
consists of eleven prisms and three-feet !e\e* 
scopes, and, by substituting for the ordinary- 
glass prism a hollow prism filled with the 
bisulphide of carbon, we get an -enormous dis- 
persive power ; but it is so easily affected by 
changes in temperature as to be very difficult 
to use, and is of service only in very practised 
hands. 
Mr. Browning, the maker of the instrument 
on the table, has, in order to insure accurately 
plane surfaces, constructed and exhibiled, at the 
Ba'li and Bristol British Association Meeting, 
1864, two instruments for measuring irregu- 
laiities, by one of Which he could detect, by 
direct leading, an irregulaiity of a twenty- 
thousandth of &n inch, and, by estimation, a 
fifty-thousandth. By the other, irregularities 
0^ a millionth of an inch were discoverable. 
The researches of Professor H inrich proving 
that the distances between the lines of each 
sepa^te gf up are multiples of the smallest 
disttvYrce in such group, and certain other laws 
in regard to the wave length, dbcovered by the 
same philosopher, would seem to warrant liis 
conclusions, that the foi m, even of ultimate 
atoms, may. by this means, be arrived at. He 
says: — “The lines must be produced, by 
either the dimensions of the solid particles, or 
by the intervals between them, i.e.y their 
distances. The latter is impossible, for their 
lines remain the same under such different 
circumstances, as cannot but, to some 
extent, change the mutual distance of 
the particles. Hence the lines must be 
produced by the bulk of the particles 
or atoms themselves, and an exact 
knowledge of these laws and distances must 
lead us to a knowledge of the relativo dimen- 
sions cfthe atoms, as to lengih, breadth, and 
thickness. Thus optics will give us the form 
and size, as cl u mis try has given us the wei-ht 
of the atoms ” It may even, according to some, 
lead us to an expt rimental demonstration of 
the existence of a primitive substance, the 
element of the elem nts. This subject formed 
the darling tlno y of the late l)r. Samuel 
Brown, of Edinbui’ib, who considered hydro- 
gen to be the element. 
Now, this short touching upon this subject is 
intended merely as a suggestive. I am quite 
aware of my inability to treat it as it deserves, 
even though I had acce s to the necessary 
authorises ; but if an interest Has been excited 
in any, which may lead to the prosecution of 
experiment in this branch of science, our 
time this evening will not haYe been mis spents 
Printed by G„ Wight, “Guardian Office,” Brisbane. 
