ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 305 



violet light, while the lower sides were brilliant white. I do not doubt that 

 the toothed form I assign to these peaks is real, which, as it contrasted with 

 that of the first appendages I have described, I verified with great care; 

 moreover, in shifting the telescope, whose high power permitted a sight of 

 only a small part of the solar disk at one time, I saw a third peak, a little 

 higher, also tooth-formed, and resembling the two others in color and form, 

 differing only in its larger dimensions. The remainder of the disk offered 

 nothing remarkable. 



'The visible part of the emergent sun, over its whole breadth and up 1o 

 the height of seven or eight seconds, was covered by a bed of rosy clouds, 

 which appeared to gain in thickness as they emerged from behind the disk of 

 the moon." 



The conclusion arrived at by LeVerricr respecting these rosy appendages 

 is, that they do not, as has been supposed by some, belong to the moon, or 

 to the earth's atmosphere, but to the sun, and that they should hereafter be 

 designated as "solar clouds; " and, making an application of his conclusion, 

 he adds : "A reconstruction, or even a complete abandonment, of the theory 

 hitherto prevalent as to the physical constitution of the sun appears to me 

 essential. It must give place to one far more simple. We have been hitherto 

 assured that the sun was composed of a central dark globe; that above this 

 globe existed an immense atmosphere of sombre clouds; still higher was 

 placed the photosphere, a self-luminous, gaseous envelope, and the source 

 of the light and heat of the sun. Where the clouds of the photosphere are 

 rent, says the old theory, the dark body of the sun is seen in the spots which 

 so frequently appear. To this complex constitution must be added a third 

 envelope, formed of the accumulation of roseate clouds. Now, I fear that 

 the greater part of these envelopes are only fictions; that the sun is a body 

 luminous simply because of its high temperature, and covered by an unbroken 

 layer of roseate matter, whose existence is now proved. This luminary, thus 

 formed of a central nucleus, liquid or solid, and covered by an atmosphere, 

 falls within the law common to the constitution of celestial bodies." 



This opinion of LeVerrier is not, however, likely to be acquiesced in by all 

 astronomers; and M. Faye, in presenting to the French Academy a long let- 

 ter from Baron Feilitzsch with an account of his observations (also in Spain), 

 declares it to be his opinion, as well as that of Baron F., that the eclipse of 

 1860 furnishes the most decisive evidence in favor of the opinion which 

 refers the corona and the luminous clouds to simple optical appearances, and 

 not to the essential constitution of the sun or of his atmosphere. M. Faye 

 adds, that the opinion appears to be confirmed by a comparison of the results 

 of other observers, that the sun has no atmosphere, and that the appear- 

 ances recorded are purely optical. 



M. Praznowski, who observed the eclipse at Briviesca, in Spain, with special 

 reference to the polarization of light, comes to the following conclusions : 



(1.) The light of the red protuberances is not polarized. In this respect 

 they resemble clouds in our atmosphere. May we hence conclude that these 

 are solar clouds, composed of particles, not gaseous, but liquid, or even solid? 

 The high temperature of the sun leads us to infer that these clouds are con- 

 stituted of very refractory matter. 



(2.) The polarization of the corona proves that its light emanated from the 

 sun, and was reflected. The bright, very decided, polarization, proves also 

 that the gaseous particles from which it was reflected send the light to us 

 reflected nearly at the maximum angle of polarization. For a gas this 



