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Show The Birthplace of the Stars By GARRETT P. BERVI88. f-ttHE clue to the mystery of 6 creation no doubt lies In those glowing clouds called gaseous nebulae, which seeui3 to float like phosphorescent thistledowns thistle-downs among the stars. They arc the teed grounds out of which spring suns and worlds. Or they may be called the protoplasm of (he universe Undeveloped in them lie all the possibilities of organic life. As an amorphous mass of Jelly-like Jelly-like "living substance" crawls slowly over a flat surface and with an uncanny suggestion of dim cun ulng envelopes and absorbs some, for It. nutritious morsel, behaving all the while like a living animal that has neither head nor body nor limbs nor organs, nor fixed shape, but yet can move and devour and, in a low sense, mediate and plan, and as such masses split up and by fission multiply, so many of the nebulae, like the marvellous one in Orion, appear to bo convulsed with forces which are directed toward to-ward a definite, organic aim, the transformation of nebulous substance sub-stance into stars. It Is only when wo comprehend in its fullness the evolutionary doctrine that absolutely everything every-thing that now exists on tho earth, including our precious selves and our very intelligence, was once a mere sleeping orce in the womb of a nebula, that wo begin to appreciate ap-preciate to what daring heights scientific theory can go. But in our generation we have witnessed an enormous change in public sentiment sen-timent concerning these things It Is forty eight years ago. just when Bismarck was setting up an imperial throne for the Hohcnzol-lerns, Hohcnzol-lerns, that John Tyndall startled many Rood people by declaring in a lecture, which was published all over the world: "Not alone the more ignoble forms of animalcular or animal life, not alone tho nobler forms of the horse and the lion, not alone the cxq.ui.sito and wonderful won-derful mechanism of th human body, but thr human Mind tsilf, emotion, intellect, will and all their phenomena were once latent In a fiery cloud!" It may be that there are still people who are startled and offended of-fended by that statement, hut scientific progress since Tyndall's day has been steadily making the , statement good. Even at this very V f moment sonfe'hiiTg comes to 4 strengthen It. A bulletin of the Lowell Observatory, which 1 have just received, contains the announcement an-nouncement from Dr. V M. Slipher of a new type of nebular spectrum, the discovery of which serves to link up yet more firmly the connection con-nection between stars and nebulae This new type of spectrum is 1 shown by a curioua comet-shaped object, known as Hubble's variable nebula, which is attached to the ariable star R Monocerotis Photographs of the spectrum of this object, made at the Lowell Observatory, lead Dr. Slipher to think that the luminosity of this nebula, and of another similar one 111 the southern hemisphere (N. G. C. 6729), may be of the nature of rellected light, the source of the light being the star embedded in, or at least connected with, the ne bula. Talcing Hubble's nebula as a whole both star and gaseous mass, its spectrum bears a close resemblance resem-blance to lhat of a temporary star, as. for Instance tho new star that shone out in Auriga in 1S92. The star in Hubble'.- nebula is placed at one end. like the nucleus of a comet (a similar arrangement appears ap-pears to prevail with the other nebula mentioned), and the light of the star is of the same char-actei char-actei as that of the nebula If the latter shines by reflecliou from the former the spectral similarity is accounted for. The nebula may be vaporous, gaseous, or a dusty or pulverulent nature, but In any case its Intimate Inti-mate connection in origin and history his-tory with the star to which it Is attached at-tached appears evident. Dr Slipher believes that the class of "reflection nebula" may include such strange objects as the glowing clouds intermingled inter-mingled with the Pleiades and condense con-dense around the principal stars of that cluster, and also that they are, In some wav, associated with the enigmatical dark nebulae of which Barnard has discovered many wonderful won-derful examples. When the nebula condenses into a star and the star cools off and becomes a habitable world, and living liv-ing organisms make their appearance appear-ance upon that world, whence do they come? The answer of science was given, In bold outline, by Tyndall. Tyn-dall. in his above-quoted statement. Just as the future rocks and minerals min-erals and metals of the earth were potentially present in the original nebula, so, too, was the protoplasm, the llte-stufr. that was to give birth to the organic beings. You cannot detect the oak in its motlier acorn, and just so the world was Invisible In its mother nebula. Our lluo of life runs far bnck of the tlrst mammal, and the first vertebrate verte-brate and the first mollusk and the first protoplasmic cell it reaches Into the heart of the primal nebula, neb-ula, where mind Itself slumbored. unconscious, unborn, amid the hum I of the thoughtless atoms. |