New Sinwnbral Lamp. 291 



[We have received a drawing of the entire lamp which we 

 have not thought it necessary to engrave, as the section above 

 alluded to exhibits its material parts, and shows the peculiar 

 excellence and advantages of Mr. Quarrill's construction.] 



Ak'i'. IX. Obsfivalioiis on the Solar Eclipae, September 

 7th, 1820. 



[Continued from p. 3'J.] 



Tiiii observations contained in the preceding Number were 

 almost exclusively confined to details of the different appear- 

 ances exhibited by the moon's surface. From the facts ob- 

 served, it has been endeavoured to deduce some conclusions 

 respecting the general forms, magnitudes, and relative positions, 

 of its more prominent inequalities. Those circumstances in the 

 present phenomenon, which appear to be, more immediately 

 connected with the question of a lunar atmosphere, still remain 

 to be considered. 



Whether the moon, like the earth, be surrounded by an 

 aeriform medium, is an inquiry that has long engaged attention, 

 and in which various modes of investigation have been pursued. 

 Prior to the time of Halley, it does not appear that much at- 

 tention, as regards this matter, had been paid to the observa- 

 tion of eclipses*. Subsequently, however, both in the original 



* Kepler, about the commencement of tbe sixteenth century, had stated, 

 ia a general manner, that several appearances in eclipses of the su'.j, seemed 

 to indicate the presence of matter of extreme tenuity surrounding the moon 

 (vide Astron., pars Optica). There are also a few remarks of the solar 

 eclipse of 1706, tending to establish the same opinion (Flamstead, Cassini, 

 Phil. Trans., for that jear, and Mem. de I'Acad. de Scien., 1706, p. 347). 

 Scarcely any thing iiutiientic, however, was known previous to the publi- 

 cation of Dr. Halley's Memoir on the total eclipse of 1715. A circumstance 

 there mentioned still further confirms this. No eclipse of the sun had been 

 observed in London from the year lUO, althou;:li the patliof (he umbra 

 on several occasions must have crossed that meridian. 



