256 Chronicles of Science. [ April, 
the speaker, in taking solar spots on a very large scale, the pictures 
of the Sun’s disk being on a scale of 3 feet for the Sun’s diameter. 
There are certain difficulties in taking those pictures by means of a 
reflector ; but Mr. Cooke has recently undertaken the construction 
of a 13-inch refractor, which it is intended to apply to solar and 
lunar photography. 
On the 9th February, the forty-fifth annual general meeting of 
the Astronomical Society took place, and the report of the counal 
was read by the President, Warren De la Rue, F.R.S. Before com- 
mencing, he announced the gratifying fact that although the medal 
awarded to Professor Bond, of the United States, did not reach that 
country till after his lamented death, yet he was some time before 
his decease made aware of the honour that had been conferred upon 
him, and of the grounds on which the award had been made. 
After the usual obituary notices of deceased Fellows, the President 
gave an account of the proceedings of various observatories, and then 
touched upon the progress made in different branches of astro- 
nomical science during the past year. 
Among the most remarkable of modern astronomical discoveries, 
and, until a year ago, certainly among the most unexpected 
accessions to our knowledge, is that which has come to us latest in 
the order of discovery. We refer to Mr. Huggins’s observations on 
the spectrum analysis of the ight from a comet. The light of 
the nucleus of Comet I. 1866, as examined under his instrument, 
gives a spectrum consisting of but one bright line, whereas the 
spectrum formed by the light from the coma gives a spectrum 
which is contmuous. The inevitable conclusion to be drawn from 
these observations is opposite to that which our prepossessions would 
have led us to expect, inasmuch as, consistently with the present 
state of our physical knowledge, we are forced to conclude that the 
light of the cometary nucleus examined by Mr. Huggins must have 
emanated from a gaseous source; whereas, guided partly by other 
physical considerations, no doubt remains that the coma contains 
fluid or solid materials. Thus the suspicion of analogy between 
cometic and nebular matter has received this further confirmation. 
No doubt difficult observations of this nature require repetition, but 
the known caution and experience of the observer invite our 
confidence. 
