196 ASTRONOMY. 



eclipses, because it is just here that we may hope for striking advances 

 within a few years. And it is necessary, in order to phm our future 

 work, to know what has already been settled, and along what lines of 

 study results are to be sought. A recent publication of Mr. Eanyard's, 

 on the phenomena of " Solar Eclipses," is intended to meet these diffi- 

 culties. Mr. Ranyard has collected, in Vol. XLI of the " Memoirs of the. 

 Eoyal Astronomical Society " (792 pages, 18 plates, and a great number 

 of wood cuts) all the accounts of solar eclipses which have been pub- 

 lished from the earliest times up to 1878. Each account is cut up into 

 parts, as it were, and the matter of each part is inserted in its proi)er 

 chronological order, under one of forty-four he adings, chosen by Mr. 

 Eanyard with great care. Each heading constitutes a chapter, and 

 the chapters are arranged about in the order in which the phenomena 

 of which they treat occur. Thus the chapiters relating to the phenomena 

 near first contact have for titles: Chapter YII. "The Cusps of the 

 Solar Crescent seen as colored." Chapter YIII. " The Moon seen as red 

 before Totality." Chapter IX. "Shadow-Bands; "etc., etc. Perhaps the 

 most important chapters are numbered XLI, XLII, XLIII, XLIV: On 

 "The Brightness of the Corona," on "Polaroscopic and Spectroscopic 

 Observations," and on "Photographs and Drawings of the Corona," 

 respectively. The last chapter consists of 238 pages, and contains a 

 reproduction of every imi>ortant modern drawing. A very good feature 

 of the wood cuts is that the axis of the sun is made vertical on the page, 

 and the sun's vertex is marked also. The plates relate to the spectrum 

 of the corona, etc., and to the photographs, etc., of the total phase. 

 We are glad to notice that due credit is here given to Dr. BusCH, who 

 first took a daguerreotyjie of the corona in 1851, at Konigsberg. The 

 very varied material contained in the volume is made available by an 

 elaborate subject and author index, and the chief problems which Mr. 

 Eanyard set to himself are resolved. These were : 1. To give in the 

 order of time all of the important observations on each of the main 

 topics of study ; 2. To enable the work of any particular individual to 

 be examined J and, 3. To enable each solar eclipse to be studied by itself 

 if desired. 



The work has required about nine years for its preparation, and is 

 practically complete. We have simply to add to the data there given, 

 and need never go back of it. In general there is no complete discussion 

 of the results to be derived from each chapter, and this reserve seems 

 wise. In some cases the necessary conclnsions are pointed out, always, 

 it seems, with moderation. It is an unfortunate consequence of this kind 

 of semi-bibliograi)hical work that it will be severely criticised. Each 

 chapter will appear inadequate to the specialist in the subject of which 

 it treats. There can be no doubt but that Mr. Ranyaed has succeeded 

 in his most difficult task, and that this publication will forward the 

 solution of the most important questions involved, in a very marked 



