Ic70.] DOUGLAS — ON OBSERVATIONS OF THE SUN. 123 



observers accorJecl. They all found the protuberances to give 

 bright lines, and, therefore, the question of their gaseous consti- 

 tution v^as settled. There was not quite such identity in the 

 opinion as to the number and position of the bright lines. All 

 the observers, except Jjieut. Herschel, observed two of the 

 hydrogen lines. The blue line which he lays down corresponds, 

 however, so nearly to the hydrogen line, F, which the others arc 

 sure they detected, that we may consider them the same. All 

 likewise agree in having seen a line in the yellow, near the 

 double D line of sodium; and M. 11 ayet noted lines indicating 

 the presence of iron and manganese. He distinctly observed 

 nine lines in one protuberance, and only eight in another. 

 "Hence," he remarks, "all the protuberances do not emit 

 identical light." The observations on the corona were more 

 discordant. M. Kayet, with his powerful instrument, could not 

 detect the faintest spectrum, whereas Major Tennant positively 

 reports a continuous spectrum. 



Capt. Branfell, of the same party, reports "the protuberances 

 unpolarized, and the corona strongly polarized, everywhere in a 

 plane passing through the centre of the sun." There is the 

 usual disagreement with regard to the color of the protuberances, 

 Major Tennant pronouncing them white, but all others assigning 

 to them some shade of red. 



Such are the principal results of the memorable eclipse of 18GS •, 

 but they were immediately thrown into the shade, and rendered 

 well nigh superfluous, by a discovery made almost simultaneously 

 by M. Janssen in India, and Mr. Norman Lockyer in England, 

 by which the spectroscopic phenomena of the protuberances may 

 be viewed any day without the interposition of the moon. 



The coincidence in time of the same discovery by two men, at 

 the antipodes, ranks among the curiosities of science with the 

 simultaneous discovery of Neptune by Adams and Leverrier. 



More than three years ago Mr. Lockyer conceived the idea of 

 viewing the protuberances in full sun-light by passing a spectro- 

 scope with great dispersive power around the sun's disc. His 

 instrument being unsuitable, one of a peculiar construction was 

 ordered in 1807, but only finished in the autumn of 18G8. His 

 anticipations were realized by his first observation. In broad 

 daylight he was enabled to trace the position and shape of the 

 protuberances upon the sun's disc, by means ol' the bright lines 

 which their spectrum gave. A few days after the publication of 



