The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1891-10-16
great harvest has been gathered by many

a great harvest has been gathered by many
reapers. especially since the Introduction of
The gelatinc dry plate IN astronomical photog-
rapW. Here is specimen Of his remarks
upon the cosmos as whole:
"The heavens are richly but very irregu-
larry inwrought with stars. The brighter
stars cluster into well.known groups upon q
background formed of an enlacement of
streams and convoluted windings and inter.
twined spirals OF fainter stars, which become
richer and more intricate In the irregularly
rifted zone of the Milky Way. We, who
form part of the emblazonry. can only see
the design distorted and confused; here
crowded, there scattered, at another place
superposed. The groupings due to our posi-
ton are mixed up with those which are real.
Can we suppose that each luminous point has
no relation to the others near 1t than the &C.
cidental neigh6o"ship of grains of sand upon
the shore, or of particles of the wind.blOwn
dust of the desert? Surely every star, from
Sirius and Vega down to each grain of the
light-dust OF the Milky Way has It's present
place In the heavenly pattern from the slow
evolving OF Its past. We see system of
systems, for the broad features OF clusters
ANU pIAC0uo huu spiral WINNINGS WuiCu Ani n
the general design are reproduced In every
part. The whole Is In motion, each point
shifting it's position by miles every second,
though from the august magnitude OF their |
distances from US and from each other 1t Ia
only by the accumulated movements OF years
or Of generations that some small changes Of
relative position reveal themselves"
Science IL aiming not only to read this rid
die, but TO account for the existence Of such
special phenomena rs comets, meteors. nebul@,
dark suns and the surora b0reals. Thus far
the tpectroscope has failed to interpret the
spectrum Of the aurora. 1t has shown In
comets the presence of carbon In combination
with hydrogen and also sometimes with nj.
trOgen; and there 10 little doubt that close
exists between comets and the
periodic meteor swarms, from which Is In
ferred the probable identity Of cometarv
matter with that OF meteortes. Much 10 ex-
,ected from the arrangements made this
'ear tor preparing Photographic
hart and also catalogue OF .he heav-
ms. But DR.. Higgins warns modern as.
ronomers against jumping at conclusions
90 rashly. He shows that the imperfect
pectroscopes of an earlier day led to beliefs
which now require large modification; and
specially that 1t Is not safe to argue from
hings terrestrial to things stellar. In his t
Judgment however, the nebular hypothesis of s
lant and Lsplace still holds the field. Those e
ulECu tudI, SINCh u lotutiHS
aporous mass which at successive epochs
ecomes unstable from excess Of motion, the j
ormation OF the sun and planets could be
ccounted for by the action OF gravitatf0n, r
ach planet being originally ring or lump n
1ro wn of by the main mass, which Is now d
epresented by the sun. By totally differ. o
Mt method OF reasoning, modern science O
aces the solar system backward step by e
ep to similar state of things at the begin p
Ing. According to Helmholtz the SUMS q
eat Is maintained by the contraction of his G
ass. at the rate Of about 22O feet year.
yhether at the present time the sun Is get .
ng hotter or colder we do not certainly n
now. We can reason back to the time when !,
e sun was sufficiently expanded to fill the y
I'd was reduced to great glowing nebua. Il
hough mans life, the life Of race, perhaps, D.
too short to give US any distinct evidence
any distinct stages OF so vast process, -,
III the probability is great that the nebular r,
'pothesis does represent broadly, notwith. al
,nding some difficulties, the succession Of r.
ents through which the sun and planets -
We passed. Possibly some light may be
rown upon the subject by the charting of To
8 heavens which Is to be carried on by IL 81
servatories In various parts of the world. na
;. Huggins sees brilliant future for astron. an
", but he does not expect that man will no
or come face to face, SO to speak, with the 70
lLudtc realty VI tnlnSs that HCs Dcuihu niS -.
n perceptions. Still the inquistiveness Of GU
, human mind does not allow science to
main content without knowing. The tn
estion 81,
What see'st thou else :
In the dark backward and abysm of time? l..
lways 81 esslng itself upon men with every on
sb discovery and every new Invention. A SCI
tier in The Times, treating OF Dr: HuR- Of
8 paper says ytpc human Imagination the
ggers, under the effort to realize. however Wi
oerfectly. the mere contents Of n small Sec Tor
4 Of the sky. To conceive any kind of for
alton between the gigantic bodies that peo-
IL, to fill up the blanks which are prOba- y, =
due to our sheer inability. with all our 10
to perceive any but the largest X ~
IS and stars, and finally, to place the sec MA
so treated In relation with the universe I'D.
large, Is a task which some, at least, will nul
eve to transcend the power of humani. 10
-fTOl onto Globe. tue