■MISCELLANEOUS, 



Art. LXII. — Address. — By James Hector, M.D., President of 

 the Wellington Philosophical Society. 



[Delivered before the Wellington Philosophical Society, SOth June, 1886.] 



Abstract. 



After thanking the memhers for re-electing him to office, Dr. 

 Hector said that the Society had been very successful during 

 the last year, and the papers read before the Society formed by 

 no means an inconsiderable portion of the contents of the 

 volume. Several very important events which had taken place 

 during the past year had received notice on the part of the 

 members of the Society. One of these was the eclipse of the 

 sun, on the 9th September, 1885, a phenomenon only rarely 

 witnessed from any one particular spot of the earth's surface. 

 A very full account of that eclipse was embodied in the " Trans- 

 actions." The outcome of all the observations tended to show 

 that the sun had only a moderate degree of activity at the 

 time of the eclipse, that the scarlet prominences were only 

 moderately developed, and that they were clustered and com- 

 bined in a very irregular outline. No laminated structures — 

 that is to say, no structures parallel with the sun's surface 

 — were observed ; but there were several other minor pheno- 

 mena. He stated that he had been very fortunate in securing 

 a number of photographic negatives of this eclipse, all of which 

 he had sent Home and lodged with the Eoyal Society, where 

 they will be preserved and compared with views obtained on 

 future occasions. Another interesting phenomenon was the late 

 occultation of Jupiter and its satellites, under very favourable 

 circumstances for determining whether anything of the nature 

 of an atmosphere surrounds the moon. 



An event of considerable importance was the visit of the 

 United States exploring ship " Enterprise," under Commander 

 Barker. When she left New Zealand she was to make for the 

 coast of South America, and Captain Barker was good enough 

 to consult the speaker as to whether there was any particular 

 course that could be of more use than others for the purpose of 

 taking soundings. He informed the meeting that he had lately 



