Inquiring as to the significance of his discovery, Dr. Draper remarks that it seems rather difficult “at first sight to believe that an ignited[5] gas in the solar atmosphere should not be indicated by dark lines in the solar spectrum, and should appear not to act under the law, ‘a gas when ignited absorbs rays of the same refrangibility as those it emits.’ But, in fact, the substances hitherto investigated in the sun are really metallic vapours, hydrogen probably coming under that rule. The non-metals obviously may behave differently. It is easy to speculate on the causes of such behaviour; and it may be suggested that the reason of the non-appearance of a dark line may be that the intensity of the light from a great thickness of ignited oxygen overpowers the effect of the photosphere, just as, if a person were to look at a candle-flame through a yard thickness of sodium vapour, he would only see bright sodium lines, and no dark absorption.”
The reasoning here is not altogether satisfactory (or else is not quite correctly expressed). In the first place, the difficulty dealt with has no real existence. The law that a gas when glowing absorbs rays of the same refrangibility as it emits, does not imply that a gas between a source of light and the observer will show its presence by spectroscopic dark lines. A gas so placed _does_ receive from the source of light rays corresponding to those which it emits itself, if it is cooler than the source of light; and it absorbs them, being in fact heated by means of them, though the gain of temperature may be dissipated as fast as received; but if the gas is hotter, it emits more of those rays than it absorbs, and will make its presence known by its bright lines. This is not a matter of speculation, but of experiment. On the other hand, the experiment suggested by Dr. Draper would not have the effect he supposes, if it were correctly made. Doubtless, if the light from a considerable area of dully glowing sodium vapour were received by the spectroscope at the same time as the light of a candle-flame seen through the sodium vapour, the light of the sodium vapour overcoming that of the candle-flame would indicate its presence by bright lines; but if light were received only from that portion of the sodium vapour which lay between the eye and the candle-flame, then I apprehend that the dark lines of sodium would not only be seen, but would be conspicuous by their darkness.
