40 



to see. In the next view of the eclipse of 1870, you will see the 

 rosy prominences of the chromosiihere standing out against the 

 Inminous corona. As seen by Gillman, in 1869, it is described as 

 an infinitude of fine violet, mauve-coloured, white, and yellowish- 

 white rays issuing from behind the moon. A copy of Gillman's 

 drawing is now before you and you may, from it, perhaps form 

 some idea of the sijlendour of the spectacle. Lastly, I cannot 

 altogether quit the subject without speaking for a few moments 

 of the marvellous results of Spectnim Analysis in its application 

 to Astronomy. 



Newton's speculation as to the sun being a vehemently hot 

 earth has been so far confirmed that we know that iron, nickel, 

 manganese, magnesium, cobalt, chromium, sodium, titaniun, and 

 calcium are present in the vapours of the sun, I wiU just throw 

 on the screen the spectrum produced by sunlight, wherein you 

 may see the well-known dark lines which, first recognised by 

 Fraunhofer, yielded their secrets to Stokes, Bunsen, and Kirchhoff. 

 So far, we have not discovered in the sun itself any body not 

 known as a constituent of the earth. But in the spectrum of the 

 Aurora, there is a peculiar green light, which is almost the only 

 light given by the great majority of them, and these coincide 

 precisely with the three lines observed in the spectrum of the sun's 

 corona. 



Now, as Professor Tait remarks (" Recent Advances in Phy- 

 sical Science," p. 151), it is a very singular fact that the terrestrial 

 substance which gives these lines has not yet been discovered, and 

 the coincidence of them with the three Aurora lines seems to 

 promise us wonderful information as to the similarity of the upper 

 regions of the earth's atmosphere. In fact, the Avhole tendency of 

 modern science is to show us how delicately balanced are the forces, 

 how wonderfully organised the matter which together constitute 

 the great universe of which we form a part. The study of the sun 

 has taught us how a vortex in its luminous sphere, or a flash of 

 light upon it, may thrill through the whole framework of this world 



