Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-10-11

ambitious astronomers are not content
with the safe old methods, but must pin
themselves down to the most positive and
exact predictions, and this, too, in regard
| to the movements of the least understood
of all phenomena
When Science oversteps its proper boun.
aries, and travels into the realms of I'M
| agination, it ceases to be trustworthy
guide; and that is what has taken place in
the present instance. There ale several
radical objections to the acceptance of the
last new prediction, however, and it is
| proper to state them in their natural order
In the first place, then, it is not at all GER
tain that either MIR. Proctor or Piazzi
smyth, or any other astronomer, has said
what is held to justify the current report.
In the second place, if anything of the
kind has been said, it has most assuredly
been said without scientific authority.
For, in the third place, it is impossible to
ascertain whether the comet now visible is
that OF last year o of any preceding year.
Yet upon this assumption alone rests the
conclusion that it will return and fall into
the sun next year. If it is new comet it
may be hundreds or thousands Of years be-
fore it returns to the sun and no man can
be sure whether or not it is a new comet.
In the fourth place, even if it could be as
certained that it was last years comet, and
If 1t was certain that it would fall into tho
sun next year, there would be no justifca-
ton for alarm for nobody has any means
of knowing what would happen in that
event. The supposition that the heat of
the sun would be greatly increased has no
foundly ignorant OF the constitution of the
cometary bodies. 1t seems to be almost
certain that considerable part OF them is
composed of highly tenuous matter. 1t is
thought probable that their nuclei are
| composed of more solid matter But all
speculation on the subject is simply guess
work, and there is exactly as much founda-
ton for the theory that comets are gaseous
bodies, as for the theory that they are solid
bodies.
In the fifth place we have no certain
| knowledge of the constitution of the sun
| itself, and therefore we cannot form even
| an approximately accurate idea 40 20 what
the effect would be of cometary impact
upon its surface. In fact il would be diff.
J ficult to conceive of q question in regard to
which we are more at sea than this. There
| is some talk OF a prospective collision be.
tween the comet and the sun but we do
not know what comet is composed of,
and we do not know what the sun is com.
| posed Of. We therefore are utterly in.
| capable Of foreseeing the result of such
| collision. For all we know comets may be
celestial fre.extinguishers, and there may
| consequently be more danger of putting
the sun out than of increasing its heat. Or
comets may be purely nebulous bodies,
whose impact on the sun would produce no
more effect than the drifting Of cloud
against mountain peak. Or comets may
possess Gold Or comparatively solid nuclei,
yet these nuclei may be so tenuous as
compared to what we call solid matter as
to be incapable of causing any changes in
the sun. OF course il is open to any one
to suggest as many other ideas as can be
thought of. Comets may be solid bodies,
capable of 60 firing up" the sun to tenn
perature which would shrivel all organized
life up on this planet as moths are shriveled
in the fame of lamp. Even in that case
we have the consolation of knowing that
our end would be painless and swift, and
that nobody would be left to step into our
shoes. But the whole subject is so sur
rounded with impenetrable difficulties
that only men of powerful imagination,
like Proctor or disordered iutellects, like
Piazzi Smyth, are at all likely TO venture
to treat it seriously.
As to Proctor, he is no doubt a good
"last, but ne is apt to let his magma
ton run away with him, and he has been
encouraged to do this by the popularity of
his lectures. As to Piszzi Smyth, he
is living proof that a "devout
astronomer" may be mad as well as an
uudevout one. For he has wasted a great
many years in writing most preposterous
book entitled Sour Inheritance in
the Great Pyramid" in which be un-
dertakes to show that the aforesaid Great
Pyramid was constructed in mystic and
Biblical manner, for mystic and Biblical
ends. The book is precisely one of those
which Professor De Morgan was go fond
of classifying in his catalogue of paradoxes,
and deserves to rank with the many
instances of perverted talent and iuge.
nuity which have been elected by the
"quadrature of the circle" and the
perpetWum mobile. Now, man
capable of writing such book is clearly
no more to be trusted when he prophesies
than Tribulation" Cumming, whose
somber screeds used to be in the hands
of every pious old lady few years ago.
In short, Piszzi Smyth is wild but
tiresome monomaniac, and it is evi.
dent that his astronomical science
has been muddled by his pyra-
midal piety. And so far no
man OF any really sober and responsible
scientific views has been mentioned as in.
dorsing the wild controversy logical. When
Newcomb, Young, Higgins, Schellen, and
such scientists, have spoken, if indeed they
care to speak, we shall know what are the
views which true science takes of the mat
ter But even then we can expect no new
light on the situation. There is no man
living who understands either comets or
the sun. and without such an understand.
ing it is perfectly clear that conjecture and
speculation must be wild and purposeless.
There is, however, no ground for apprehen.
sion. In any case We cannot know what