The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1879-02-07
THE SUN.

THE SUN.
P.of. z4oeAyer-S New solar DiscOyeries.
New York Herald.
One of our cable dispatches is of pecu-
liar interest to the scientific world, but
also of great interest to that large part
of the general public which watches with
sdmiration and wonder The vast additions
made in our time TO the exact knowl-
edge of the physical universe. Mr.. J.
Lcckyer, whose remarkable discoveries
in the speetroscopic examination of the
sun have made him justly famous,
claims 10 have made one more step in
advance in the solution of the mysteries
OF solar phenomena An outline of his
siatement-lust enough to whet the ap-
petite of the scientific world for the fuller
statement itself when it shall be put
iorth-has been given to our London
spondent, and the new views it
contains appear to be presented as con-
victions reached from study of the
observations made in the eclipse of the
sun last year. 1t deals with the consti-
tuition of the solar ehromosphere, sug-
gests a theory of the corona, an argu-
ment IN support of Sscchi's views of the
sun spots and a theory of the solar
phenomena in their totality." Appsr-
emily these are all the result of further
details in spectroscopic study. Mr..
Lockyer and the French astronomer,
Jansen, made nearly at the same time,
in the year 1858, the discovery that the
luminous protuberances beyond the
corona, seen when the sun is in eclipse,
could be examined in the spectroscope,
and that 50 examined they showed the
lines Of the spectrum of hydrogen. A,
once the study of the chemical constitu,
tion of the sun and other planets wa:
seen to be possible, and has been since
pursued with great zeal by means of the
same instrument. Many lines seen il
this examination were not. susceptible o
satisfactory classification, were in fact
chemical mysteries.
Prof. LockYer's first statement refer
to some of these, which he Is now in
clined to accept as indications Of tn,
imperfection of our present chemica
nowledge-evidences that some fourteen
substances now classified as elements ar,
not elementary, but are compounds. I
should be remem 5ered that the spectre
scope has pointed the way for chemica
discovery, and has indicated the exist
ence of metals not previously known t,
US. That this process may be now re
peated on grander scale is reasonable
An old proverb, that we must 90 awa7
from home to get news of our neigbbors
is strikingly exemplifed in our gettinj
from the sun hints for prosecution 0
our study of earthly substances. Blu
Mr.. Lockyer's suggestion of a sort o
gaseous circulation on the surface of tn
sun bids fair to be the most remarkabl
result of his studies. This is practIcaII,
q theory that the sun is an enormou
permanent reservoir of gases in chemica
combustion, but whose combustion is s.
ordered that exhaustion is impossible
Our atmospheric circulation may illus
trate the process as it seems to be stated
If an inhabitant of the sun was tol
that the seas on earth were continual
vaporized by the sun he might say, 81
i cannot be, for they are not exhausted.
) But il learned of the return. in tt
form of rain, of all that vaporize
! water, one fact would explain the othe
i Somewhat analogous are the two poin
s in the history of the sun stated in Il
e dispstch-discharges by combustion
Y it's elements at the level of the pinot
y sphere, their projection to higher leye
h and their return in new associations,
e in the old ones repeated, from this high
o level-- that, in short, all the unexplain
It appearances on the surface of the 81
is are due to a constant projection of ga
j, Gus elements in one state, and consta
IS fiery rain made by their return
ss another state.