The distinguished astronomer, Norman Lockyer, has lately read a paper before the Royal Society (London) under the title of a “Preliminary Note on the Spectra of the Meteorites,” which advances some of the boldest theories and suggestions ever offered concerning the Universe, which cannot fail to interest the readers of the Journal of Man.

According to Mr. Lockyer the meteors which we have been accustomed to consider trivial or incidental matters in planetary and stellar systems, no more important than the dust which the housewife raises from parlor and chamber, are really fundamental and basic elements of the Universe, capable of generating comets, planets, suns and stars.

If this idea can be entertained, meteors must be vastly more numerous than the world has supposed. Cosmical space, according to Mr. Lockyer, is filled with meteorites of various sizes, flying in many directions with enormous velocities and moving in certain orbits like larger bodies. Many observations have been made to determine the number of these meteorites. Dr. Schmidt, of Athens, in seventeen years of observation concluded that in a clear dark night an observer would see on an average fourteen an hour at one station. Other astronomers have calculated that if observations were made over the whole earth, ten thousand times as many would be seen as could be seen by a single observer. Calculating thus, it has been inferred that about 20,000,000 luminous meteors fall on the earth every twenty-four hours, besides the innumerable amount of minute bodies too small to be seen by telescopes—which some suppose to be twenty times as numerous as the visible.

Prof. H. A. Newton makes some astounding estimates on this subject—that the orbit of the earth is filled with meteorites, about 250 miles apart, making a group of about 30,000 in a space equal to that of the earth. If such calculations are reliable, the query must arise, How much effect can such a meteoric shower every day in the year exert on the orbital motion of the earth, in retarding its velocity? The effect must be greatly increased if, according to Prof. Newton, the velocity of meteors striking the earth is about thirty miles a second, varying from ten to forty.

From such a basis as this rises the grand hypothesis of Mr. Lockyer, who is a courageous theorist, that all cosmic space is filled with meteorites, that they go in swarms, and that not only comets but stars are formed by conglomerate aggregations of meteorites.

Schiaparelli, in 1866, demonstrated that the orbit of the August meteors was the same as that of the comet of that year. It is in August and November of each year that we have the most brilliant display of meteors in two distinct groups, or orbits. Those of August come from a point in the constellation of Perseus and those in November from a point in the constellation Leo. They are believed to fill two distinct orbits or rings making an elliptical orbit round the sun. In such orbits, comets are believed by astronomers to be formed by a concentrated swarm of incandescent meteorites rendered luminous by collisions. But this hypothesis of innumerable collisions between meteorites travelling in the same orbits does not appear very plausible.

This doctrine of the genesis of comets, advanced by Schiaparelli, is extended by Mr. Lockyer to the genesis of all great luminous bodies. NebulÆ, comets, stars, variable and temporary stars, are all thus brought under a general law and method of genesis. The increasing approximation and condensation of the meteorites is seen in different classes of stars. Stars of the class iii.a are not so far advanced as others.

The next step in the hypothesis is that in the extreme approximation and condensation of the meteorites a degree of heat is generated which converts the whole into a mass of incandescent vapor, at a “transcendental temperature.” The maximum temperature being thus attained, a cooling process begins, which is seen in our sun and other stars of the second class. Other stars, according to Mr. Lockyer, of class iii.b exhibit spectra which show that their temperature is not so high, and the last stage is attained by stars and other bodies which have ceased to be luminous, and, therefore, are not seen, but may be recognized by the perturbations which they produce in the movements of other bodies.

According to this hypothesis our solar system was once but a mighty swarm of meteorites, extending as far as the farthest planet at present. We may as well suppose its materials to have been a swarm of meteorites as to suppose a chaotic fire-mist. Mr. Lockyer supposes the clash of meteor swarms to have produced new stars, and suggests the possibility of stellar or planetary bodies coming into collision, though no observations ever made yet give an example.

The destroyed planet, Sideros, discovered by Prof. Denton, illustrates that the universe has its disorder and tragedy as well as our own sphere. The time is coming when all these mysteries are to be cleared up—it will be when Psychometry is added to our telescopic and spectroscopic methods. Then will astronomy and all other sciences receive their grandest enlargement. In this task I cannot at present engage, for the limitless field of Anthropology alone is too much for a solitary scientist laboring for the advent of “The New Civilization.”