Year: 1875

PROFESSOR PRocroRs LECTURE ON THE WONDERS


OF ASTRONOMY.


Not"thstanding the cold ana the biting wind which
swept over the city last night large intelligent and
fashionable audience attended at Stenway Hall
70 hear the second lecture OF the pres
ent series In Of delivery by Pro-
lessor Richard A. Proctor, the eminent English
astronomer The subject OF the lecture was sThe Life
and Death OF Worlds" Although the interest OF tho
latter portion OF the subject is remote as far as we arc
concerned considering that some billions Of years will
have TO eapse before there is any sensible dminuton
In the light and heat Of the SUM- upon which life on our
planet depends still the discussion OF these subjects
touches collateraly upon of the greatest nom
astronomical problems upon which the mind of man
has over been engaged


The professor opened his lecture by stating that IL
really Complementary and q necessary pendant
to the first He desirous OF showing not only tho
origin and growth Of worlds and their life and death
but also specifically that there Is much DIFF
ference between worlds there Is between differ
species and genera of animals; indeed, as much
as between a fly and elephant That there is this
enormous difference between worlds he proved FIRST OF
all by nstancing the planets Jupiter and the earth
former OF which has a natural life from TO ten
times greater than that of the EARTH The real life OF
planets consists in the amount of heat which they
possess and the giant planets in gathering together
all that goes to make up their bulk generate
vastly greater heat by the infinitely greater velocity
with whi;h they attract other bodies to themselves
and they part with it much slowly. Stated
automatically heat is generated in the attraction Of
bodies in the ratio Of the cube of the diameter while
is parted with only in the ratio of the
square OF the diameter 1t thus happens
that the giant planet Jupiter has by no
means reached the stage at which our earth now is,
aud
be extinct upon long before Jupiter does reach
that stage. Summarizing what he said about Jupiter
and the earth, he supposed the life OF the earth
to be divided into ten parts, represented by the
nebuous, the sunlight, the decadence and the death
period and stated that, whereas IL is confidently
serted by great scientists that both the earth and its
inhabitants have


PRIME OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT


II will require at least 0oo OF years before the
planet Jupiter will be far cooled down on the surface
that life exist upon it Now order TO get fairly
at the notion OF the life and death of worlds
the differences them Just as we have to
consider the differences between the animals. The
great and recently invented authority which have
upon this subject is spectrum analysis the spectrum
recording with unerring accuracy the constitution and
composition of everything brought within its range
At this point of the lecture the Professor the room
darkened and began by showing the sunlight decom-
posed by the prism. The spectrum showed that tho
sun contained much the material the
earth. The question then arises as TO whether
we can say that the other planets also contain the same
materials We infer that they Go because IL is unlikely
that the centre of our solar system the sum- would be
so similar in composition TO the earth and the other
planets dssimi,ar. Here the Professor spoke at
length of the wonders disclosed to by spectrum
To take an example 1t is proved beyond doubt that
iron exists in the sum- not have it, but
OF the prodigious heat at the SUMS surface The
vapor of iron gives this earth 450 bright lines the
spectrum. II does precisely the same when examined
on the suns surface through the spectrum This evil
dence being certain and conclusive the iron,
proper induction renders the process equally
falble with regard to other metals and substances.
When we come to consider the various ages
OF the planets we at have to come to
the conclusion, from the premises previously
advanced that the smallest planets have the shortest
life Venus and the Earth about equally long
lived Jupiter has been mentioned before Saturn is
probably going to be shorter lived than the former 1t
possible that Uranus and Neptune have already put
on life Here the Professor exhibited slide
showing that the whole Of the planet Jupiter Is prob
ably enwrapped in clouds, thus evincng that IL has
not yet reached the comparative age of EARTH


curious piece OF information has reached him during
the last few days 1t Is that De Marion proved that
Jupiter Is enwrapped in far deeper and denser cloud
atmosphere than any which surrounds
Garth. The space which the planets have
domain was shown in the OF the
sun, the earth and and tho planet
Jupiter. The more immediate purpose OF the even
ings lecture as far the death of worlds is concerned
was entered upon, when, among other views the two
suboined Of the planet Mars shown the
audience