The true northerner., 1873-05-30

| he could not prove his theory, he gave
il remarkable strength. Whether it be
true or false, it is worthy of admiration,
and of II high place among human spec
ulations. Though it should fail, its
authors fame will certainly be enduring.
That space contains vast numbers OF
these meteoric bodies is unquestionalle.
Shooting stars are visible almost every
night in the year. Millions, yes, bill
lions OF them, approach the earth an
nually. Some pass rapidly athwart the
the upper regions of our atmosphere
some are dissipated in vapor and some,
venturing too far within the sphere OF
the earth's attraction, fall solidly to the
ground. These last occasionally weigh
several tons apiece, though @roites OF
more than hundred pounds are rare.
OF those which reach the earth, how
ever, but few are found. AS the ocean
is of greater area than dry land, many
must be lost in its waves. Others fall
into lakes or rivers, into desolate or un-
inhabited regions, or into lands occupied
by savages. Probably not one IN
thousand disrecognizedb by yintelllgent man.
At certain seasons the earth passes
through meteoric belts, as in August
and November of each year And
once in every thirty-three years star
showers of the most superb character
are seen. The great shower OF 1888
rendered at least two hundred and forty
thousand meteors visible in Boston.
They fell, "crowded together like snow
fakes" Andyet the earth passes through
but a small portion of the space which
is tributary to the sun. In other words
the sun has not only more than three
hundred thousand times the earths at
tractive power, but also an overwhelm-
ingly larger reservoir of meteors to draw
! from.
Suppose, now, that these meteors We're
to fall in considerable numbers upon the
sun? This is hardly a supposition,
| there is so little reasonable doubt of it.
As 1 have already stated, heat would be
produced. Each @rolite would, by its
fall, generate as much heat as would be
given out by the combustion of mass
of coal nine thousand times its size.
Here, then, we have generous source
of heat, but none too generous for our
needs. For, to cover the solar expendi-
ture, at least two hundred billions of
tons of meteoric matter must fall upon
the suns surface every minute This
would be about one ounce to the square
yard. Imagination staggers under such
figures as these. Up to this the theory
has seemed reasonable, but now it begins
to look wild. Can it be that this won
derful storm of falling stars is every
moment falling to the sun? Can we
conceive of such stupendous phenomena?
Indeed, is not the problem to be solved
too vast for human conception?
Some of the more obvious objections
to this theory have been satisfactorily
met by DR.. Mayer himself. With others
he may not have been successful. 1t is
said that, if the hypothesis be true, if SO
many billions of tons of matter are each
moment added to the sun, that body
must be continually growing larger.
Should we not see it increase visibly i'll
size In answer to this, Mayer has
shown that at least thirty-three thou
sand years would have to elapse before
the increase in the suns dimensions
could be detected even with our most
delicate instruments. If all the planets
of our solar system, with their satellites,
were to fall into the sun, as perhaps i'll
time they may, its expenditure of heat
would be covered for little more than
forty-five thousand years. Possibly our
earth, when its mission is completed,
ages hence, may thus be veritably de-
stroyed by fire. Such are the fields of
speculation opened up to us by the mar
velous theory of DR.. Mayer. Whether
this theory be wholly true or not, we
can hardly doubt that it is true in part.
Some of the suns heat is due TO the fall
of meteors.
The other famous hypothesis of the
solar heat is that of Helmholtz. Being
deduced as a direct consequence of the
all-but-proved nebular theory, it has
very great elements of strength. 1t is
simpler than Mayors, makes less strain
liable to but very few objections. The
solid trunk of the nebular hypothesis
shoots out healthy branches.
According to the nebular hypothesis,
which is now generally received, the
solar system began existence as an in
candescent gaseous cloud. This, swiftly
rotating, underwent condensation. Rings
of vaporous matter were thrown off,
finally contracting into planets, the CEN
trail portion of the nebula, partially con-
densed, remaining as the sun. The sun
now has but about one-fourth the mean
density of the earth, and, according to
the hypothesis, is still undergoing con-
traction. And here is where Helmholtz's
theory begins. All the bodies in con-
tracing give out heat. The sun is con-
tracing, and therefore must give out
heat Should it cease contracting, it
would speedily grow cold. Now, Helm
holtz has calculated that the original
nebula, in condensing to the present
volume of our system of planets, must
have emitted enough heat to have raised
the temperature of the entire mass 2S,-
600, 200 deg. cent. Most of this energy
has been radihted into space, yet much
was made TO tell in the actual increase
of temperature. And, if the sun were to
condense to the density of our earth, the
heat evolved would cover its expenditure
for seventeen million years. Here we
have perfectly adequate theory of the
solar force. Were the suns diameter
to be lessened but 1-10000th, the small
est diminution perceptible to our instru-
ments, the supply of heat thus generated
would cover the solar waste for twenty
one centuries. Only at the end of this