THE SOURCE AND MODE OF SOLAR ENERGY. CHAPTER I. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM OF SOLAR ENERGY. In endeavoring to present a new and rational interpretation of the source and mode of solar energy, based upon the established principles of recent science, it becomes necessary to briefly cite the facts bearing upon the problem to be solved and the authorities for their support, as well as to describe concisely the different hypotheses at present in vogue, and to point out the well-established insufficiency of these theories, one and all, to account for or explain the difficulties encountered, and which so far have remained as an unsolved enigma. And this problem of solar energy is the grandest and most important question of all physics, for upon the light and heat of the sun depend all physical life and its consequences, animal and vegetable, past, present, and future