803 
1879.] Simple Bodies ? 
and storm-lines. As therefore the spectra of spots and pro- 
minences are from the hottest region of the sun, Mr. Lockyer 
employed them for testing these basic lines. The result 
has led him to conclude that their appearance in two or 
more spectra is dependent solely upon high temperature. 
The basic lines are more prominent in the spectra of spots 
than in the spedtrum of the sun ; they are, moreover, more 
prominent at epochs of sun-spot maximum than during 
times of minimum. The statement, then, that the spedtrum 
of each element consists only of lines special to that element, 
is found to be insufficient when the highest temperatures 
and the greatest dispersions are employed. 
A clearer conception of what is meant by the so-called 
elements being split up at a very high temperature will be 
gathered from the following illustration, given by Dr. Bal- 
four Stewart : — “ If we apply a very powerful source of 
eledtricity, we obtain certain peculiar lines from the vapour 
of calcium. Now if we could catch hold of and segregate 
—put into a box, as it were— all these minute entities that 
give us this suspicious line at a high temperature, and, fur- 
ther, if we could keep their high temperature up, I think it 
is probable that we might obtain something which is not 
calcium, or, at any rate, something simpler than the mole- 
cule of calcium as this appears at lower temperatures. But 
we are not yet able, and perhaps we may never be able, at 
an ordinary temperature, to present the chemist with 
some other substance derived from calcium, which is not 
calcium.” 
Much, of course, remains to be done before Mr. Lockyer’s 
views will be universally accepted. The indecomposable 
charadter of the bodies which we have hitherto considered 
elementary has for a long time been considered doubtful. 
Mr. Lockyer, however, is the first to come boldly forward 
with experimental proof. What the final result of the dis- 
covery will be we cannot foretell. A physical problem, 
as Dr. Stewart says, begins like a rivulet. At its first 
introduction it is small and seemingly unimportant ; 
constantly, however, as it winds along it receives accessions 
from various quarters, until at length it becomes a mighty 
river that is finally merged in the unfathomable ocean. 
This course is followed by all such problems. Each begins 
small, grows broader, and will finally bear us on to the 
unknown if we trust ourselves to its guidance. 
