St. Landry democrat., 1879-03-08
TIE SUN.
AZ of. E4or2yer's New Solar Discoveries.

a. of. E4o.Ayer's New Solar DiscoverieH.
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
admiration and wonder the vast additions
made in our time to the exact kuoWl-
edge of the physical universe. Mr.. J.
Lecsyer, whose remarkable discoveries
in the spectroscopic examination of the
sun have made him justly famous,
claims TO have: made enc more step in
advance in the solution of the mysteries
OF solar phenenlena. An outline Of his
s!atement-,]ust enough to whet the ap-
petite OF the scientific world for the fuller
statement itself when it shall be put
forth--ha5 been given to our London
correspondent, and the new views it
contains appear to be presented IS con
vicsions reached from study Of the
observations made in the eclipse Of the
sun last year. Il deals with the consti-
tuition OF the solar chromosphere, sug
gests q theory Of the corona, an argu
rent 10 support of Sacchi's views of the
sun spots and a theory of "the solar
phenomena in their totality." Appar
emily these ara all the result of further
details in spectroscopic study. Mr.
LocEyer and the French astronomer,
Jansen made nearly ut the same time,
in the Y2ar 1863, the discovery that the
'uo.l;: oHs pratuHerances bayond the
co >naa, setn T:Een the sun Is in eclipse,
cJu;l! be examined in the spectroscope,
and that so examined they showed the
lines u the spectrum Of hydrogen. At
once the study CT the chemical constitu~
ton the sun and other planets was
seen to be possible, and has been since
pursued with great zeal by means of the
same instrument. Many lines seen in
this examination were not susceptible OF
satisfactory classification, were in tact
chemical mysteries.
Prof. LockYer's first statement refers
to some Of these, which he is now in.
clined to accept as indications of the
imperfection of our present chemical
observation-disclosures that some fourteen
substances now classified as elements are
not elementary, but are compounds. It
should be remembered that the spectre.
scope has pointed the way for chemical
discovery, and has indicated the exist
ence Of metals not previously known to
us. That this process may be now re.
peated en- a grander scale ia reasonable.
An old rroverb, thai we must go away
from home to get news of our neighbors,
is strikingly e2emplifed in cur getting
from the sun hints for pros. cution of
our study of earthly substances. But
Mr.. Lockyerss suggestion of a sort of
gaseous c'rcul alton on the surface of the
sun bids fairsto be the most remarkable
result of his studies. This is practically
theory that the sun is an enormous
permanent reservoir of gases in chemical
combustion, but whose combustion is 60
ordered that exhaustion is impossible.
Our atmospheric circulation may Illus
trate the process as it seems to be stated.
# an inhabitant of the sun was told
that the seas on earth were continually
vaporized by the sun he might say, cit
cannot be, for they are not exhausted"
But if learned of the return. in the
form of rain, Of all that varorized
water, one fact would explain the other.
Somewhat analogous are the two points
IN the history of the sun stated in the
Observation-Disclosures by combustion of
it's elements at the level of the photo
sphere, their projection to higher level,
aud their return in new associations, or
in the old ones repeated, from this higher
level-- that, in short, all the unexplained |
appearances on the surface of the sun
are due to constant projection of CASE
GUS clements in one state, and constant |
fiery rain made by their return in
another state.