Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/323

Rh gone over the whole ground again with great care, studying not only Arago's case but the general one, in which the direction of the light made any angle with the motion of the earth; and he proves that the light will always enter the eye in the same apparent direction as it would have done if the earth were at rest. The mathematical and physical view taken of this subject by Fresnel has been under discussion for sixty years, and forty eminent physicists and mathematicians might be enumerated who have taken part in it. Fresnel's explanation has encountered difficulties and objections. Still, it is consistent not only with Arago's negative result, but with the experiments on diffraction by Fizeau and Babinet, and the preponderance of mathematical evidence is on that side. Mr. Huggins runs counter to the general drift of physical and algebraical testimony (although he appears to be sustained by the high authority of Maxwell), when he attributes some displacement of the spectrum-lines to the motion of the earth, and qualifies the observed displacement on that account. The number of stars which Huggins has observed is insufficient for any sweeping generalization. And yet he seems inclined to explain the revelations of his spectroscope, not by the motion of the stars, but by that of the solar system; because those stars which are in the neighborhood of the place in which astronomers have put the solar apex are moving, apparently, toward the earth, while those in the opposite part of the sky recede. If it be true that the earth's annual motion produces no displacement in the spectrum, then the motion of the solar system produces none. Or, waiving this objection, if the correct explanation has been given by Huggins, astronomers have failed, by their geometrical method, of rising to the full magnitude of the sun's motion. The discrepancy appears to awaken no distrust in Mr. Huggins's mind as to the delicacy of the spectrum analysis or the mathematical basis of his reasoning. On the contrary, he would remove the discrepancy by throwing discredit on the estimate of star distances made independently by Struve and Argelander from different lines of thought.

Next, we ask, if it is certain that even the motion of the luminary will change the true wave-length, the period of oscillation, and the refrangibility, of the light which issues from it. The commonly-received opinion on this subject has not been allowed to pass unchallenged. It is fortified by more than one analogy; but it is said that comparison is not always a reason. It is not denied that, when the sonorous body is approaching, the sound-waves are shortened, the number of impulses on the ear by the condensed air is increased, and the pitch of the sound is raised. Possibly, the color of light would follow the same law; but there is no experiment to prove it, and very little analogy exists between the eye and the ear. There is no analogy, whatever, between the subjective sensation by either organ and the physical action of the prism. The questions at issue are these: Does refraction depend