the fact, we may add), it is obvious, Mr. Waterston remarks, that the actual temperature may thus be much below the potential; in consequence, that is, of the escape of heat from below thus diminishing the heating power of the entire system of radiating strata of solar

matter.

How immensely the temperature of the sun, according to Mr. Waterston's computation, must transcend the most elevated heats with which we are familiar on the earth, even if we make a deduction of some millions of degrees for the reason just given, will appear, when we compare these numbers with that expressing, according to Professor Bunsen, the temperature of the flame of mixed oxygen and hydrogen gases, affording one of the very highest heats known in chemistry, which is only 14,580° Fahr., scarcely more than 10th part of the potential temperature of the sun. But the exterior regions and the atmospheres of the sun, though the former (like the interior ?) are incandescent, and the latter must be at an intensely high temperature, are doubtless of much inferior heat; and this agrees with a remarkable induction recently made from the observations of Professor W. A. Miller, of King's College, London, which, in sequence of those of others, have shown that the prismatic spectra of the metals vary with the temperature of the source of light. The metal magnesium, of which the earth magnesia is an oxide, is one of those, which, as already mentioned, are believed to exist in the state of vapour in the sun's atmosphere. By introducing it into the oxyhydrogen flame, a spectrum has been obtained corresponding in length with the solar spectrum. By employing the electric spark between magnesium terminals, bowever, in which case the spark consists of that metal in a state of incandescence, a longer spectrum than that afforded by the sun is obtained. Now, if magnesium exists in the sun, but the spectrum of the latter be inferior in length to a magnesium-spectrum produced by the heat of the electric spark, it has been inferred, and the inference has been accepted by an unquestionable authority, that the temperature of the sun is not so high as that of the electric spark, and also, from the equality of the solar spectrum and that of magnesium in the oxyhydrogen flame, that approximately it is not higher than that of the latter source of heat, or, as above, 14,580° Fahr., being the very temperature we have selected to contrast with the transcendent heat ascribed to the sun by Mr. Waterston. These inferences however can only apply to the solar atmospheres; and the just general deduction from this union of results we conceive to be, that while the range of temperatures in certain inner regions of the sun and those from which heat is actually radiated to the Planets is transcendently elevated, that of its atmospheres may be so much lower as even to approach some of the highest temperatures with which we are acquainted on the surface of the earth, and others which probably exist in its interior. Some adequate conception, therefore, of the intensity *The highest temperatures attained in furnace-operations, and required for the fusion of the common metals, it will be remembered are greatly inferior to this: bariron requiring the highest heat of a wind-furnace, melts at about 3280° Fahr., and cast-iron at 2786°. When a body is sufficiently heated to give out red light, we say, it is red-hot, and when it emits white light, it is said to be white-hot: the temperature of the various degrees of red heat vary from 700° to 1200°, while that of the lowest white heat is 1400°.

of the sun's heat may perhaps be arrived at, by due consideration of the apparent fact, that where the upward range of known terrestrial temperatures terminates, that of solar temperatures appears to com

mence.

We conceive also that the entire system of actions witnessed in the sun necessarily implies that its central region—that of the nuclei of the spots-below and within all the zones or regions which can properly be said to be visible, is the highest in temperature; that those actions cannot otherwise be explained; and that the distribution of heat in the sun is from within to without, in the order of decreasing intensity, apparently, however, not so much by gradual transition as by successive leaps, from surface to surface, one zone radiating or communicating heat to another. The analogy of the spots to cyclones and of the currents in which they drift to our periodical winds supports this inference. In the terrestrial system consisting of the surface of the earth and the successive strata of the atmosphere, in which those phenomena take place, the lowest or most interior surface, that of the earth, is the highest in temperature. If the analogy be real the same must be the case with the sun. That its lowest or most interior region, as seen through the spots, should appear black, does not prove it to be non-luminous, as astronomers have admitted; that appearance, it is conceived, would be the natural consequence of its light, on account of its transcendent temperature, altogether transcending visual perception, consisting, perhaps, in undulations of an order incommunicable to the retina; while the intermediate and more or less visible regions, including the cloudy and penumbral strata, between it and the photosphere are intermediate also in this respect.' A more particular account of what has been called Solar Chemistry, which, if its foundations are secure, must be intimately connected with this subject, is reserved for another occasion. The efforts made of late years to account for the supply of the enormous and incalculable amount of force, impressing undulatory motions on the ether, extending to unknown distances in space, of which we become sensible, and which act upon nature, both organic and inorganic, as Light and Heat and Chemical Action, and perhaps as Magnetism also-to show why the sun is not exhausted and may be inexhaustible, will also be noticed hereafter: to the periodical actions manifested by the Sun-spots, their evident relations to Terrestrial Magnetism and probable relations to the amount of Light and Heat radiated to the Planets; the Zodiacal Light, which seems at once to be a kind of medium between the Sun and the Solar System, and an indication that the sun is one of the "Nebulous Stars;" the analogies, now believed to extend even to chemical composition, between the Stars in general and that one which rules our planetary system; to all these subjects, as distinct from that of the Physical Constitution of the Sun itself, another paper must be devoted-when another revolution of the Earth around it shall call for the appearance of the 'Companion to the Almanac' for the year 1865.

*

This view of the subject was first enunciated in a lecture on the Physical Constitution of the Sun, delivered to the students and masters of the academy of the Society of Friends called "Tottenham School," on the 27th of March, 1863. It is now first printed.

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Observations and Researches on the Constitution of the Sun.

It now remains only to enable the reader to pursue for himself the course of inquiry here indicated, and to enable him to verify the statements which have been made by reference to the authorities employed. Free use has been made of all, but care has been taken to name the original observers of facts and enunciators of theories, except in cases in which such information might be regarded if not as a part of general knowledge at least as the common property of science. As it has been found requisite to interweave with the original statements the interpretations of which they appeared susceptible and the conclusions derivable from them, their authors are not to be considered responsible for anything in this article but what is expressly ascribed to them or distinguished as quotation. The suggestions and expressions of opinion which the writer has introduced, are submitted in candour and all just deference to the judgment of Astronomers, and that of their auxiliaries among other men of science who have given attention to the sun.

Astronomical facts of recent discovery have been derived chiefly from the 'Monthly Notices' of the Royal Astronomical Society, from 1859 to 1863, and a few from the 'Memoirs' of that Society, vol. xxi. The distinct works made use of are principally the following: the "Treatise on Astronomy,' by Sir John F. W. Herschel, as first published in 1833, forming a volume of the Cabinet Cyclopædia,' and the larger work based upon it entitled 'Outlines of Astronomy,' the fifth edition, that of 1858, being that actually cited; Mr. Hind's 'Introduction to Astronomy,' third edition, 1863; the Rev. R. Walker's Discourse on the Physical Constitution of the Sun,' 1860; and Prof. Kirchhoff's work, as translated by his disciple Prof. Roscoe, entitled 'Researches on the Solar Spectrum and the Spectra of the Chemical Elements,' 1862. The observations and views of Mr. De la Rue are derived exclusively from his 'Bakerian Lecture on the Total Solar Eclipse of July 18th, 1860,' read before the Royal Society on April 10th, 1862, and published in the 'Philosophical Transactions for that year, p. 333-416. The reference to Prof. Roscoe's researches on the chemical brightness of various portions of the solar disc, is derived from his paper on the subject in the 'Proceedings' of the Royal Society for June 12th, 1863; vol. xii., p. 648-650.

London Institution,
October, 1863.

E. W. BRAYLEY.

III. THE EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN IN TRADES AND MANUFACTURES NOT ALREADY REGULATED BY LAW.

FEW questions connected with the condition of the industrial classes are more important or interesting than those relating to the employment of children and young persons in the various workshops and factories of the kingdom. Impartially considered, it is to be feared that, in many cases, the employment of children is but a species of infant-slavery, most pernicious in its social and physical consequences, and the burden of which lies too frequently at the door of the parents, as well as at that of the employer. The evils connected with the system are so prominent, that the subject has more than once occupied the attention of the legislature, and in 1833 an attempt was made to meet a portion of the mischief, by passing an Act prohibiting the employment of children under nine years of age in certain classes of factories, at the same time forbidding those under thirteen years of age from working "full-time." At first, the adoption of this Act was strenuously opposed by many of the principal mill-owners, who naturally entertained a belief that its provisions, if enforced, would materially interfere with the efficient working of their establishments.

After a few months had elapsed, these opinions of the employers became considerably modified, and they were constrained to admit that, so far as the children were concerned, the Act of 1833 had proved extremely beneficial in its operation. But, considering the Act was somewhat experimental in its nature, it is not surprising to find that it contained some defects, which occasioned many just complaints, and ultimately led to the passing, in 1844, of the present Factories' Regulation Act, whereby the age of children employed as "short-timers" was reduced from nine to eight years. The new Act was found to be productive of considerable advantages, both to the employers and the employed; the difficulties attending the enforcement of its clauses having been greatly exaggerated; while the periodical reports of the factory inspectors bore ample testimony to the numerous advantages which it had conferred upon the children employed in factory labour.

Two or three years ago the principal features of the Factories' Regulation Act were embodied in a measure intended for the relief of children and females employed in bleaching and dye-works, and which also afforded Mr. J. A. Roebuck, M.P., an opportunity of uttering one of the most effective speeches ever made in the House of Commons. The speech of the Member for Sheffield prepared, in some degree, the way for the movement which led to the appointment, in February, 1862, of a Royal Commission for the purpose of inquiring into "the employment of children and young persons in trades and manufactures not already regulated by law."

The first Report of this Commission has just been published, and contains much information of a valuable and interesting nature respecting the condition of the children employed in the pottery,

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lucifer-match, percussion-cap, paper-staining, lace, and hosiery manufactures, and in the local trades known as fustian-cutting," "finishing," etc.; besides a large amount of evidence with respect to the systematic violation of the law relating to the employment of climbing boys by chimney-sweepers. The details contained in the Commissioners' Report reveal the existence of a terrible state of things, so far as the mental and physical condition of the children employed in several of these trades are concerned.

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THE POTTERY MANUFACTURE.

In our pottery manufactures, which are chiefly carried on in certain parts of Staffordshire, large numbers of children and young persons are employed in a manner utterly unsuited to their age and extremely prejudicial to their health. Indeed, the system has been carried on to such an extent that Mr. Benjamin Boothroyd, surgeon and mayor of Hanley, has stated that, with respect to the children employed, the Staffordshire pottery manufacture is " one of the most deleterious and destructive of human life in the country;" an assertion which is corroborated by Mr. Charles Parsons, late house surgeon of the North Staffordshire Infirmary, who declared that his indignation has been again and again aroused at the sight of poor children whose health has been sacrificed to gratify the avarice of either parents or employers." To the late Josiah Wedgwood belongs the honour of having raised the English pottery manufacture to its present state of national importance, by introducing every available scientific and mechanical improvement into the old mode of manufacture. Unfortunately, while studying the improvement of the product, that of the producer has been to a great extent forgotten, and the result is, that the more perfect the manufacture, the greater are the sacrifices demanded of the workers, especially those of tender years. In Dr. Greenhow's Report, published in 1860, Mr. Boothroyd states that each successive generation of potters becomes less robust than the preceding one. No wonder, then, that the Royal Commissioners, after perusing the large and voluminous body of evidence collected by Mr. Longe, one of their Assistant Commissioners, should have expressed a hope "that a manufacture which has assumed so prominent a place in the eyes of the world will not be long subject to the remark, that its great success is accompanied with the physical deterioration, wide-spread bodily suffering, and early death of the workpeople, especially those of tender and immature age, by whose labour and skill such great results have been achieved."

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To properly understand the nature of the labour to which the children employed in the pottery manufacture are subjected, it is necessary to explain that in the manufacture there are certain processes, such as flat-pressing" and painting," in which children are largely employed. These processes have been declared, on apparently unexceptional testimony, to be decidedly injurious in their effects upon the health of the workers, especially those of tender years. The male children are employed principally in connection with the process of " flat-pressing," which includes the making of