DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6095#0178
i6o A TOUR THROUGH
fe£Uy melted, and has acquired the same*
degree of heat and light as the rest of his
body.—Even in our glass-houses, and other
very hot furnaces, most sorts of matter
very soon acquire the same colour and
appearance as the matter in fusion, and
emit rays of light like it. But how much
more must this be the case at the surface of
the sun ! when Newton computes, that
even at many thousand miles distance from
it, a body would acquire a degree of heat
two thousand times greater than that of
red hot iron. It has generally been under-
stood, that he said the great comet really
did acquire this degree of heat; but this is
certainly a mistake: Sir Isaac's expression,
to the bed of my remembrance, is, that
it might have acquired it. And if we
consider the very great size of that body,
and the short time of its perihelion, the
thing will appear impossible: nor indeed
do I think we can conceive, that a body
only as large as our Earth, and the spots
on
fe£Uy melted, and has acquired the same*
degree of heat and light as the rest of his
body.—Even in our glass-houses, and other
very hot furnaces, most sorts of matter
very soon acquire the same colour and
appearance as the matter in fusion, and
emit rays of light like it. But how much
more must this be the case at the surface of
the sun ! when Newton computes, that
even at many thousand miles distance from
it, a body would acquire a degree of heat
two thousand times greater than that of
red hot iron. It has generally been under-
stood, that he said the great comet really
did acquire this degree of heat; but this is
certainly a mistake: Sir Isaac's expression,
to the bed of my remembrance, is, that
it might have acquired it. And if we
consider the very great size of that body,
and the short time of its perihelion, the
thing will appear impossible: nor indeed
do I think we can conceive, that a body
only as large as our Earth, and the spots
on