The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-05
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Editorial Oplnlons Of the Lending JOuraas
Upop Cnrrent Topics -Couipiiod kvcrv
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SCIENCE IN 1860.
From he n. y. Eoeni,0 Post

Tho year winch mas Just endou VIII perhaps
be remembered longest as that in which the
first railroad was completed across this conti-
nent, and that in which the Suez Canal ex-
tended the Mediterranean Sea eastward TO
India; changes which, together with the new
line of the Pacific Mail steamships from the
Golden Gate to China, have practically
shortened by one-half the average time re-
quired for q journey around the world. But
there are other proofs of real progress in the
world, which may one day be regarded as not
inferior to these, although the noise they
make at their coming is rs nothing beside the
acclamations with which Christendom has
greeted the new pathways open to trade.
These are found in the substantial additions
which have been made to human knowledge
in the domain of science the advances by
which the mind of man has pressed forward
into what have always been unknown realms.
Chief among these are doubtless the
achievements of the spectroscope, especially
in the province of astronomical optics. 1t is
but few years since this instrument of re-
search came into the hands of investigators;
but it has already proved itself second in i'm
portance only to the telescope and the micro
scope, in extending our acquaintance with
the laws of the universe. Indeed, we may
say that any one of these three instruments
alone, in the present state of science, would
afford not 1.-THE of the resources which the
combined battery of the three, assisting
one another, places in the hands of aggressive
intelects, laying siege to that workshop of
nature" which Goethe declared to 'forever
inaccessible" "
There are some results of stereoscopic in
vestigation, achieved during the last year,
which pass beyond all the boldest anticipa-
tions even of its inventors. Perhaps the most
brilliant of them is the method of determining
the ''proper motions" of the stars, even whom
they are in a right line to or from our sun.
The spectrum formed by prism, dispensing
the rays of light, is the result of the law that
these rays are refracted mole or less accord
ing to the length of the "waves' of which
they consist Now, if star is moving away
from us or towards us in space, mathema-
tician can calculate how much the waves of
light are heightened or shortened by given
rate of motion; and how much any given
ray, located on the spectrum, for instance,
by any of the dark lines of Fraunhofer,
will be despatched thereby. 1t is found,
in fact, that in a number of the
fixed stars the dark lines which indicate the
presence of the incandescent vapor of hydro
gen or of iron are actually displaced, but
always uniformly and in degree which indi-
Gates by calculation the direction aud rate of
motion of the stars. To appreciate the i'm
portance of this discovery it must be remem-
befed that, previously, it was supposed that
no such motion could possibly be detected.
unless by observations continued long enough
to establish a progressive and regular gain
or loss in brightness of each star observed;
that is to say, continued for many thousands
of years.
The very recent discovery also made by the
spectroscope of the identity of the aurora
borealis with the zodiacal light, and of both
with the corona surrounding the sun when
totally eclipsed, is one which as yet, indeed,
is q stumbling block to astronomers, but
which seems to lead them to the very verge
of some wonderful revelation. For it is
always the most mysterious facts the most
unaccountable observations, that prepare
the way for the greatest advances in know
ledge. An exception to any law already
known is sure to prove only an instance of
some greater law waiting to disclose itself
Indeed, the activity with which new facts
concerning the solar system have been col
lected during the last year is itself one of the
wonders of science 1t is but short time
since the astronomy of our own system was
regarded as complete in outline, and only to
be filed up by painful and abstract researches,
perfecting our knowledge of the several
bodies in detail, which could have no interest
for the general reader. But now the whole
intelligent world is filed with the renown of
inquiries into the structure of the sun, the
nast history of its syytem the storms in its
atmosphere, the nature of its nebulous ap-
pendage, and even into the exact figures of
its distance from the earth-a question, how
ever, on which no important addition is ex-
pected to what is now known, until the next
transit of Venus, December 8, 1874.
The other sciences have been no less ac-
tive of late, although some of them have at
tanned only results of less general interest.
In chemistry there has been great progress
made in improving the nomenclature, and in
the methods of exact analysis. Many of its
new practical applications, too, have been
most promising; none more SO than the i'm
provements in the manufacture of iron and
steel from the ore, and in obtaining illumi-
mating gas. In zoology and pal@ontology there
here; and, although there have been no new
works forming an era in these sciences, yet
an era in the popular understanding and love
of them has certainly been brought about in
that country, where the people gather to-
gether by thousands whenever such a man as
Virchow or Haeckel or Fogt promises a sci
entifc lecture on questions which, but a few
years ago, were regarded as the exclusive con-
Germ of a few specially learned men.
The close of the year has been marked by
making public the results of an expedition,
sent out by the British Government, to ex-
plore, by dredging, the depths of the sea.
This attempt has been far more successful
than its projectors dared to hope; and has
resulted in proving the existence of life in O
great variety of forms at depths which were
supposed to be demonstrably an utter waste.
Eight, at least, of the forms found in great
depths are species which were known as ter
tiary fossils, but were supposed to have been
extinct for thousands of ages. We have re-