store that the effect of that loss would be imperceptible in such periods as those over which our knowledge extends. This supposition, however plausible, is speedily demolished when brought to the test by which all such questions must be decided—the test of actual calculation.
We can determine with all needful accuracy the store of heat that the sun would contain if regarded merely as a white-hot solid globe. When we apply the known annual loss, we see at once that if the sun had merely the simple constitution here supposed, the annual expenditure would bear such a considerable proportion to the total supply that the effect of the loss would become speedily apparent. It is certain that the sun must under such circumstances fall some degrees in temperature each year. In a couple of thousand years the change in temperature would be sufficiently great to affect in the profoundest manner the supply of sunbeams. As, however, we know that for a couple of thousand years, or, indeed, for periods much longer still, there has been no perceptible decrease in the volume of solar radiations, we conclude that the great luminary cannot be regarded merely as a glowing solid globe dispensing its heat by radiation.
There is another supposition as to the continuance of sun heat which must be mentioned, only, however, to be dismissed as quite incapable of offering any solution of the problem. As we generate heat here so largely by the combination of fuel, it has been sometimes thought that a similar process may be in progress on the sun. It has been supposed that elements capable and desirous of chemical union may exist in the sun in such profusion that by their entering into association a quantity of heat is liberated sufficient to account for the continuous dispersal by radiation.
