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" On an Electrical Corona resembling the Solar Corona," 

 by Professor OsBORNE Reynolds, M.A. 



The object of this paper is to point out a very remarkable 

 resemblance between a certain electrical phenomenon (which 

 may have been produced before, although I am not aware 

 that it has) and the solar corona. This resemblance seems 

 to me to be of great importance, for the striking features of 

 these two coronae are not possessed by any other halos, 

 coronge, or glories with which bright objects are seen to be 

 surrounded. 



Until the eclipse of 1871 there was considerable doubt 

 how far the accounts given by observers of the corona could 

 be relied upon; but Mr. Brothers' photograph has left no 

 doubt on the subject. In this photograph we have a lasting 

 picture of what hitherto has only been seen by a few 

 favoured philosophers, and by them only during a few 

 moments of excitement. 



This picture shows the beautiful radial structure of the 

 corona, the dark rifts which intersect it, and also shows the 

 disc of the moon, clear and free from light. I have not yet 

 seen any of the photographs of the last eclipse, but I hear 

 there are several, and that they show the radial structure 

 and rifts even more distinctly than this one does, but 

 whether they do or not one photograph is positive evidence ; 

 the absence of more simply means nothing. 



The features to which I refer as those which distinguish 

 the solar corona are — 



1. Its rifts and general radiating appearance. 



2. The crossing and bending of rays. 



8. Its self -luminosity shown by the spectroscopic observa- 

 tions of Professor Young. 



