4 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



sun be carefully examined. He calls especial attention to 

 the fact that during the eclipse of August, 1869, a bright ob- 

 ject was seen in close proximity to the sun, and that it is 

 not improbable that it is the planet which Lescarbault wit- 

 nessed in transit March 26, 1859. He therefore urges observ- 

 ers to make a rigorous scrutiny of all objects visible in the 

 neighborhood of the sun at the time of totality, so that this 

 body may be rediscovered, if possible. 3 A, November 11, 

 1871,381. 



THE SOLAR ECLIPSE OF DECEMBER, 1870. 



Preliminary reports of the observations of the recent total 

 eclipse in India have been received from most of the stations, 

 from which we judge that little has been added to the dis- 

 coveries made by the American observers of the last two 

 eclipses. The following extracts of letters from Janssen and 

 Lockyer include all of importance yet communicated. Mr. 

 Janssen says : 



"The magnificent corona observed at Schooler showed it- 

 self in such a way that it seems to me impossible to admit 

 such causes as diffraction or reflection from the moon, or sim- 

 ple illumination of our atmosphere. The spectrum of the 

 corona, as seen in my telescope, was not continuous, as here- 

 tofore found, but remarkably complex. I found in it the bril- 

 liant rays of hydrogen gas, which forms the principal element 

 of the protuberances and the chromosphere, but much more 

 feeble ; the brilliant green ray remarked during the eclipses 

 of 1869 and 1870, and some others more feeble; some dark 

 rays of the ordinary solar spectrum, especially that of sodium 

 (D) : these rays were much more difficult to see." 



From these observations Janssen concludes that : 



"Besides the cosmical matter independent of the sun which 

 must exist around this body, the observations indicate the 

 existence of an excessively rare matter, mainly of hydrogen, 

 extending far beyond the chromosphere and protuberances, 

 and fed in the same way with these by matter projected out 

 with great violence, as we see every day. The rareness of 

 this atmosphere at a short distance from the chromosphere 

 must be excessive, so that its existence is not inconsistent 

 with the observed passage of some comets near the sun." 



Mr. Lockyer saw the same bright lines in the corona that 



