The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-03-13
TAe Dog saae--1sa ysoRsfsrfna Syssessa-
Things on q Very Gigantic. SCALE,

the London Spectator says:
In bis last entertaining and instructive
book Mr.. Proctor gives Us an account Of
| the calculations and observations made on
| the size Of the Dog Star, it's distance from US
| its motion in space, and, most remarkable oil
| all, the system to which 1t belongs--which
| last astronomical observations are, to our
| minds, more impressive than any other OF
| the recent discoveries or differences of the
| same science; and for this reason, that while
the other discoveries Of Our recent astronomy
and the analysis Of the various kinds OF
| light received from the heavenly bodies only
reveal to US other suns, in the same ;incan-
descent state as our own, the latest news O!
Sirius appears TO suggest that In connection
with that Ggiant SUM-" az Mr.. Proctor terms
it--as sun more than million times rs distant
from US, and more than four thousand times
az big as our own, and with disc near
three hundred times as large as ours-there
appear TO be certain vast planets, or, rather,
to spesk popularity, non.luminous, already
cooled down Suus, on which it is quite within
The possibilities OF things that life like that of
our own tiny planetl though on an infiotely
vaster scale, might exist. Now, ills Obvious
that while our knowledge Of the distant
worlds Of space is limited TO fbodiss whose
matter is chiefly in the condition Of burning
hydrogen and incandeScent iron, it is impos.
sble for such creatures as we are TO draw
any but negative differences as TO the
chance Of their being inhabited by intelli.
gent beings Of an organization at all resem.
| bling our own. 1t would be quite as easy,
and perhaps somewhat easier, TO conceive
| Of beings with human minds inhabiting the
| empty spaces, the ethereal depths, between
| the various suns, as TO conceive OF them 10
| any sense living in a world where for US
| life would be as great miracle as the pre-.
seryation OF Shadrach, Meshacb, and Abed
| ue.o in the fiery furnace. 1t is, Of course,
| possible that such worlds may be the thea
tres of finite intelligence like mans, but Ger"
tainlv not more possible than that the ethe'
real VACUUM" as we call 1t, beyond the
| limits Of our atmosphere is SO also. The
argument from analogy wholly fails as soon
| as the leading conditions Of existence are 30
completely transformed as to require q com
| plete change in kind, and not simply in de.
gree, in the nature OF the beings, if any,
supposed to dwell there.
But in the attendants of Sirius, II the ey-
PLANTATION suggested by Mr.. Proctor for the
late MIR. GoldSmidt's discoveries is the right
one, there might, presumably at lesst, be
life Of the terrestrial kind, though strangely
different in degree from any TO which we are
accustomed. MIR. Goldsmith detected not
only very faint companion of Sirius, but
tive other companion stars, and Mr.. Proctor
suggests that ether faintness may best be
explained by suppoSiDg that they are
Opaque bodies, which shine enjy By reflect
ling the light which they receive from
their sun, SIRIUS" IF So" he goes on,
"they must be globes of enormous dimen.
sions, the least of them probably exceed.
ing our own sun many times in volume,
, while the greatest $50 we may con.
ceiye, from the disturbance Sirius him
:, self uudcrg0es) must be so large and massive
: that q thousand such orbs as our own sun
would not equal it, either in bulk or mass.
We have here, then, system differing alto.
sethcr in character from our solar system,
; the largest member Of which is but equal in
q mass TO about the lhrteen-hundredth part
OF the SUM- The complete Siran system may
even outweigh Sirius himself, and It's mass
added to bis must exert an attractive iDflu
ence Throughout an enormous portion Of The
stellar system. 1t would seem. Indeed, no
: wholly impossible that Sirius holds higher
rank in the scale Of creation than our SUI
; and other similar orbs-tnat compared will
. him these are as secondary orbS compared
with primary"
This is certainly wonderful conception.
a sun surrounded By opaque suns OF a bull
comparable in some degree TO bis OVID, in
, stead Of forming much less than the quarter
of-a-miionth part Of it, as our earth does G
its sun, or even as much uB thlrteen-hun
dredth part of it, as Jupiter, the biggest Q
our planets, does. Let us try 10 follow OH
, the conception little further, supposin
That these cooled down sans, Which, as it
assumed, are made visible to us only by re
: Elected light, possess mighty atmosphere
such as would render life there Of sort to
certain extent analogous to our own posi-
bic. Now, in the first place, if the bigges
Of these cooled-down suns really cor
: tains thousand times the volume Of on
own sun, its diameter would be at least tel
times the diameter Of our sun, and as tina!
J. is considerably more than 100 times the d
y amctcr OF our earth, its diameter would b
: 1000 times that of our earth. In other words
D speaking roughly, the diameter Of such
; world would considerably exceed s, 900, 00
miles. To make the circuit Of such a werit
as this would involve journey which n
G human being could accomplish even if ira
yelling at the highest known railway speed
. (say even 1000 miles day., unless be livet
. for some seventy Of our Years and travelled
all the time at the same eXpress-train speet
} from his birth to bis death.
But then we must remember that every
thing on such an orb would be In all prosa
bility on different scale from ours. Th
-mere force OF gravity would be so immeps
that no physical body suited to our cart
could Stir an inch if once planted there
> where it was placed there it would remain
forever, for anything that any muscula
power we know OF could do to move it. II
therefore, there be life such as ours on sue
: non.luminous suns as are the companions O
, the Dog STAR it must be either life endowed
= with muscular power indefinitely create
y Than any that We have any experience Of, o
lie embodied IN q physical organization
much more ethereal than any Of .whiel
we know. Surprising the Alpine summit
there TO bear the same proportion Il
the diameter OF the globe which our
bears to The diameter of the earth, they would
resch height of from 1000 to {, 1000 miles
, above the level of the sea instead of. lik.
ours, only from four TO six miles. And as
even with an atmosphere vastly denser thar
J our owp,-which, of course, other thnss
J being equal, it must be, with SO enormous
force OF gravity to compress lit is perhap!
to be assumed that on mountains of suct
, height the glaciers and SHOWS would gather
SO as to become the sources OF much yastel
rivers than ours, it would not be wholly
rash conjecture that even the vegetation, a.
it would be indefinitely more rich and va
rous, would alss probably indefinitely sur
} pass ours in the dimensions it attained.
In such world, it is pretty clear that any
beings who could live successfully at al
must have powers of movement, aud pro ha.