Year: 1877

| A COnSOIiR0 Possibility that the Earth tS


EitheI. to be FTozen or Roasted.


The recent confagration in the con-
stellation of the Swan, discovered by
Professor Schmidt, of Athens, has di-
| rected the renewed attention of astrono-
mers to the frequent fires in the sun.
The subject becomes one of immense
Importance in view Of the effects
which a great conhagra-i0H in the worlds
luminary may have upon the earth
itself. AS ordinary mortals are nat
qualified to speak on a subject of such
vast Importance a reporter of the New
York Herald was dispatched the other
day to ascertain the views of distin
hguished scientist upon q question so
momentous. The gentleman visited for
this purpose was Mr.. Stuyvesant Ruth
erford, of Eleventh street and Second
avenue, who kindly consented to give
any information in his power in relation
to the catastrophe.


"Have you seen Professor Proctor's
letter." asked the reporter, son the
burning of a star in the constellation of
the SWAMI


''I have not but saw some reference
to the fact of recent confagration
among the stars."


care such condagrations of frequent
occurrence"


"Within comparative recent period
a number of stars were discovered to beon
fire. There is no question that confagra-
tions are constantly taking place in the
heavens. Change is the law Of the uni
verse, as it is of the earth itself. a star
which had been shining with q dim, inef-
fectual light sometimes suddenly blazes
up with brilliancy which can be ac-
counted for in no other way than by the
theory OF stellar confagration. Indeed,
the fires among the stars are rather to
be regarded as fact than theory, for
in the two most recent cases the contia-
grations were carefully scrutinized by
the aid of the spectroscope and their
character is fully established"


A dogma so startling cannot fail to
have lively effect upon quietspeople
accustomed to regard the stars in the
sky as bright but ineffensive attractions
for poets and other romantic persons.
In the past nobody was afraid to say
s'Twinkle, twinkle little star" but now
ever twinkle in the heavens will suggest
the question whether or not it is on fire.
The peaceful stars are peaceful no longer,
but burning masses. full of danger to the
universe and terrible in the eyes of the
inhabitants of the earth and possibly
TO those also of "Other Worlds than
Ours"


CAUSES OF THE STELLAR FIRES.


"What is the cause of a confagration
so remarkable as must be that ofG burn
ing star?'


"There can be no combustion" said
Mr.. Rutherford, ''un.ess there is some
thing to consume-hydrogen for in
stance"


This proposition in astronomy is even
more startling than the one which pre-
ceeded it. "Where there's smoke there
must be fire" Is the old maxim; "where
there's hydrogen there must be combus-
| tionn will become the new. With the
reporter, however, it was a great OBJ
ject to ascertain the analogy between
hydrogen and combustion, and so he
asked, + Where does the fire come
from?"


1T is generated by heat, was the La
comic answer.


Plain people with old fashioned no
tions of heat will find it hard to accom-
modate their views to the new tangled
doctines of astronomy. Under the old
economy heat resulted from FIRE; now it
seems fire results from heat, at least
among the stars. Imaginative persons
might expect hydrogen to be ignited bv
the friction of a comet or to be the result
of some such cause, but if heat creates
| fire in the heavens, some of the stars
must of necessity be comfortably hot
just think of it-a star bathed in atmos-
phere of hydrogen growing So hot as to
set its own atmosphere on fire That is
what must have happened to the star
which Professor Schmidt saw blazing in