890 Transactions. — Astronomy. 



parallel, nor, indeed, are the phenomena, for the matter of that; 

 for our bands of light were broad, well-marked, and, I think, 

 only slightly quivering, very different from the tiny, tremulous, 

 hair-like threads of moisture seen during extensive evaporation. 

 If these bands, then, were atmospheric in origin, how were they 

 produced ? 



" I read (Proctor's, ' Sun,' p. 362) that General Meyer saw, 

 from White Top Mountain, in Virginia, during the total eclipse of 

 1860, something similar, except that the bands were of various 

 colours, and do not seem to have moved. He says : ' It was as 

 if bands of broad ribbon of every conceivable hue had been 

 stretched in parallel lines half round the universe.' 



" If there had been such a thing as a lunar atmosphere, it 

 might have been conceivable that the bands were in some way 

 owing to the pencil of rays from the sun, just before and after 

 totality, passing through that atmosphere on its way to the 

 earth. But we are assured tbat there is no atmosphere worth 

 speaking of in the moon ; if one exist at all, it is of exceeding 

 rarity. However, even a very thin, ethereal atmosphere, par- 

 ticularly if in the places where the rays intersected it, full of 

 foreign matter of any kind, liquid, solid, or gaseous, would 

 possibly occasion the spectral appearance, of the cause or causes 

 of which we are in doubt. 



" It has been seriously suggested by some of our members, 

 that the bands perhaps represent successive jerks forward, made 

 by the moon in its passage across the sun ! Now, we must be 

 well aware that there can scarcely be anything of the nature of 

 a jerk or leap in the orbital motions of the heavenly bodies, as 

 the forces producing those motions are steady, continuous, ever- 

 pressing, eternal. Is it possible, however, that we can apply the 

 atomic theory to motion, as well as matter ? Of course, the 

 movement of the heavenly bodie's, inconceivably rapid as it is, 

 is, at our distance (except in the case of meteors, shooting-stars, 

 etc.) imperceptible, unless we look for a difference of position at 

 consecutive points of time. But so is the movement of a man 

 or a horse at a considerable distance, wben going really at a very 

 quick pace ; as we approach nearer, however, we see that the 

 movement which, further off, appeared so easy, even, and regular, 

 really consists of a series of jerks forward. Just as, too, in the 

 case of a railway train. If we had power of vision quick and 

 keen enough to analyse the easy motion along the lines, we 

 should see, I imagine, that it consisted of a series of jerks, each 

 of which would represent the result of a contest between the 

 power of steam and the resistance of friction. Now, apply this 

 kind of reasoning to the motion of a celestial body, a star or 

 planet, in its orbit. We know that, in accordance with the 

 parallelogram of forces, that motion is in the direction of a 

 diagonal between two lines, the one of which represents in length 



