240 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EECENT TOTAL ECLIPSES OF THE SUN". 



By Professor SOLON I. BAILEY, 



HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 



NATURE, when in her sublimest moods, is seldom seen without 

 fear and danger. The tornado furnishes an exhibition full of 

 weird beauty and scientific interest; yet man, in his haste to reach a 

 place of safety, has little time for their contemplation. In the total 

 eclipse of the sun, however, nature provides one spectacle, unsurpassed 

 in grandeur, which may be observed in perfect safety. There was a 

 time, indeed, when the chief emotion caused by an eclipse was fear, 

 that superstitious dread of impending evil, which the presence of the 

 unknown causes. This has now passed away, with the increase of 

 knowledge. Perhaps no better illustration of the changed thought of 

 the world in regard to natural phenomena could be found than 

 a comparison of the following extracts. The first is from the early 

 English chroniclers; William of Malmesbury, writing of the eclipse 

 of March 20, 1140, says: 



At the ninth hour of the fourth day of the week, there was an eclipse 

 throughout England as I have heard. With us, indeed, and with all our neigh- 

 bors, the obscuration of the sun also was so remarkable that persons sitting 

 at table, for it was Lent, at first feared that chaos was come again; afterwards, 

 learning the cause, they went out and beheld the stars around the sun. It was 

 thought and said by many not untruly that the king would not continue a year 

 in the government. 



The 'New York Herald' of January 2, 1889, announced the eclipse 

 of the previous day with the following headlines: "The Sun Knocked 

 Out. After about two minutes it comes up smiling. Viewing 

 TJiE Eclipse. Clear skies almost universal along the belt of 

 TOTALITY. Fine photographs taken/" etc., etc. 



Scientific study is now the chief attraction of an eclipse, although 

 its spectacular beauty is appreciated as never before. Many natural 

 phenomena, which otherwise would attract the systematic attention of 

 scientists, fail to do this in consequence of the irregularity with which 

 they occur. An eclipse of the sun, however, can be computed many 

 years in advance, so that careful plans can be made for its observance. 

 Even here grave trouble is caused by the uncertainties of meteorological 

 science. It is a striking and somewhat discouraging fact that, while 

 one can compute with reasonable accuracy the place and time of an 

 eclipse a hundred years in advance, he cannot safely predict a single 



