THE 



CANADIAN NATUKALIST 



AXD 



(Quavtrvty ^fournnl of ,§ricnrr. 



ON RECENT SPECTROSCOPIC OBSERVATIONS OF 



THE SUx\, AND THE TOTAL ECLIPSES OF 1868 

 AND 1869. 



, By James Douglas, Jr. 



Astronomy is no longer a purely mathematical science, treating' 

 of the distances and magnitudes of the celestial bodies ; nor is the 

 telescope the only instrument by means of which the condition of 

 these far-distant worlds can be studied. The spectroscope now 

 enables the astronomer to determine of what the sun and many of 

 the fixed stars are composed ; whether they possess an atmosphere, 

 and what elements exist in it ; w-hether they are self-luminous or 

 only reflect borrowed light ; what burns in the flaming tail of the 

 comet, and what those mysterious clouds of light — the nebu]a3 — 

 are. 



Until the year before last the spectroscope had revealed little elf^e 

 respecting the physical constitution of the sun than that it 

 possesses a gaseous envelope or atmosphere of glowing gases and 

 metallic vapours, in wdiich certain known and many unknown 

 substances existed. But a solar atmosphere had been predicated 

 on other grounds. Looking at the sun in the full blaze of 

 day-light, one sees a fiery orb with sharply-defined circumference • 

 but when the sun is eclipsed, by the passage of the moon between 

 it and the observer, the surface of the sun is seen to be broken, 

 YoL. Y. H Xo. 2. 



