74 COSMOS. 



bers of solar spots (Hevelius observi^d a group of this kind "on 

 the 20tli of July, 1643, which covored the third part of the 



gis domestico, CimscripH, p. 58. These annals were originally ascribed 

 to a Benedictine monk (p. 28), but subsequently, and correctly, to the 

 celebrated Egiuhard, Charlemagne's secretar}^. — &ee Annales Einhat-di, 

 in Pertz, Monumenta Germanice Historica, Script., torn, i., p. 194. The 

 following is the passage referred to : " DCCCC VII. Stella IMercurii xvi- 

 kal. April, visa est in Sole qualis parva macula nigra, paululum superius 

 medio centre ejusdem sideris, quce a nobis octo dies conspicata est ; sed 

 quando primum iutravit vel exivit, nubibus impedientibus, minime no 

 tare potuimus." " On the 1.5th of March, DCCCCVIL, Mercury ap 

 peared to be a small black spot on the Sun, a little above his center, 

 aud was visible to us in that position for eight days; but, owing to the 

 obstruction offered by the clouds, we were not able to see either when 

 it reached or left that place." The so-called transit of Venus recorded 

 by the Arabian astronomers, is noticed by Simon Assemanus in the In- 

 troduction to the Globus Cctlestis Cvjico-Arabicus Veliterni Musei Bor 

 giani, 1790, p. xxxviii. : "Anno Hegyrae 225, regnante Almootasemo 

 Chalifa, visa est in Sole prope medium nigra qu;edam macula, idque 



feria tertia die decima nona meusis Regebi " This appearance 



was believed to be the planet Venus, and the same black spot (macula 

 nigra) was supposed to have been seen for 91 days (probably with in- 

 termissions of twelve or thirteen days ?). Soon after this, the reigning 

 Calif Motassem died. I have selected the following seventeen exam 

 pies from a large number of facts collected from the historical records 

 derived from popular tradition, as to the occurrence of a sudden de 

 crease in the light of the Sun : 



45 B.C. At the death of Julius Csesar: after which event the Sun re- 

 mained pale for a whole year, and gave less than its usual warmth ; 

 on which account the air was thick, cold, and hazy, and fruit did not 

 ripen. — Plutarch in J?/^. C«'s.,cap. 87; Via C<7S5.,xliv,; Virg., Georo-., 

 i., 4G6. 

 3.3 A.D. The year of the Cnicifixion. "Now from the sixth hour 

 there was darkness over all the land till the ninth hour." (St. Mat 

 thew, xxvii., 45.) According to St. Luke, xxiii., 45, "the Sun was 

 darkened." lu order to explain and corroborate these narrations, 

 Eusebius brings forward an eclipse of the Sun ia the 202d Olympiad, 

 which had been noticed by the chronicler, Phlegon of Tralles. (Ide- 

 ler, Handhuch der Mathem. Chronologie, bd. ii.,p. 417.) Wurm has, 

 however, shown that the eclipse which occurred during this 01ym« 

 piad, and was visible over the w^hole of Asia Minor, must have hup- 

 pened as early as the 24th of November, 29 A.D. The day of tie 

 Crucifixion cori'esponded with the Jewish Passover (Idelcr, bd. i.,p. 

 515-520), on the 14th of the month Nisan, and the Pa.ssover was al- 

 ways celebrated at the time of tlie full moon. The Sun can not, 

 therefore, have been darkened for three hours by the Moon. The 

 Jesuit Scheiner thinks the decrease in the light night be ascribed to 

 the occurrence of large Sun-spots. 

 258 A.D. A darkening continuing two hours, on the 22d of August. 

 before the fearful earthquake of Nicomedia, vvhich also destroyc>i 

 several other cities of Macedonia and Pontus. The darkness con 

 tinned from two to three hours: "nee contigua vel adp )sita cerno 

 bantur." "Without either contiguous objects or those in juxtapisi 

 tit'U being discernible." — Ammian. MarcelL. xvii., 7. 



