ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



there are circumstances connected with the appearance of the faculse which 

 serve to obviate this objection. First, he asserts it to be a well-known fact that 

 even bright groups of faculse, as they advance from the eastern border of the 

 sun towards the middle of the disk, now and then vanish, and even seem to 

 reappear in altered forms after they have passed the middle parts of the disk. 

 Again, he states, that both himself and his assistants have remarked that the 

 faculse, although occasionally quite visible when they are just upon the edge 

 of the sun's disk, still are, at other times, much less conspicuous in that posi- 

 tion than at some distance from the edge. He estimates the maximum 

 brightness of the faculse to be in those parts of the disk which are situate 

 at a distance of ' to 5' or 6' from the margin. Hence it would appear that 

 the brightness of the faculse depends on the position which they occupy with 

 respect to the imaginary line uniting the centre of the sun and the eye of the 

 observer. " Might it not then be easily possible," he says, "that as, in the 

 middle of the sun's disk, so also upon its margin, where the radius forms a 

 right angle with the line before mentioned, the light of the faculse should not 

 surpass the rest of the solar surface ? nay, might it not descend hi intensity 

 to the light of the protuberances ? The light of the latter cannot be so incon- 

 siderable, since they continued to be seen, according to some accounts of the 

 eclipse, for a considerable time after the reappearance of the sun. If this be 

 really the case, it is probable that the cloud-like faculse merely represent 

 transparent objects, in a small degree or even not at all self-luminous, which 

 allow the sun's light to pass in certain positions, with respect to the eye of 

 the observer, without being themselves visible ; in other positions, to transmit 

 to us a maximum of the solar light, either by refraction or reflection, with 

 such intensity that they appear brighter than the surrounding parts of the 

 surface; and finally, in other positions, to appear with the mild light and 

 color of the protuberances." Without taking into account the impossibility 

 of a mere accidental coincidence of the drawings of the faculse with the pro- 

 tuberances, M. Schweizer sought to establish a connection between the latter 

 and the penumbrse of the solar spots ; but he was unable to arrive at any 

 consistent results. During the days immediately preceding and following the 

 eclipse, the number of such penumbrse visible upon the disk was too small to 

 account for the numerous protuberances, and even of those penumbrse or 

 nuclei which did appear, not one, however small, was situate exactly upon 

 the margin of the disk, as ought to have resulted if they had been identical 

 with the protuberances, and as really occurred in the case of the faculse. 

 Moreover, the forms of the protuberances do not in anywise resemble those of 

 the penumbrse seen near the margin of the solar disk ; while, on the other 

 hand, any person who has observed the solar faculse, cannot fail to be struck 

 with the resemblance between the forms of the protuberances and those of 

 the faculse, more especially in the case of the vein-like shoots which gradually 

 lose themselves in the surface of the disk. 



CONNECTION BETWEEN METEOROLITES AND ASTEROIDS. 



At the British Association Mr. Greg read a paper on ' Meteorolites and 

 Asteroids,' in which he brought forward some circumstances in connection 



