50 Tlie Great Solar EcUj^se [Jan., 



near relative, science-education. It is fairly within the scope of an 

 ardent and timid imagination to conceive that a state might 

 attempt to indoctrinate the national mind with a certain foregone 

 and foredeter mined scheme, adapted to work towards some set 

 purpose ; but it certainly is not possible to imagine the utter 

 absui'dity of a state influencing the direction of discovery, or 

 shaping the perceptions of new truth. 



On the whole, then, the investigation which will now be formally 

 entered ujDon, and which will be pressed upon public attention, will 

 be pretty much compressed into a nutshell, and will take one clear 

 practical issue. At a time when the surface deposits and sui'face 

 leads of the great mine of theoretical and practical science are 

 almost exhausted by individual pickers, are deep diggings to be 

 opened out by the aid of a small driblet of the capital that has 

 been created from the past yieldings of the property ? Are civihzed 

 nations, and especially is England, where there is such isolation 

 and concentration of life and mind-energy, to remain content to 

 benefit by small accidental waits and strays of discovery that fall 

 in from time to time ; or is a clear, powerful, and organized efi'ort to 

 be made to use the present accumulation of human intelligence as 

 a means, of quickening the acquisition of that thorough knowledge 

 of the properties and workings of material nature, which is the 

 essence of civilization, and the instrument by which the well-being, 

 the liigh dignity, and the happiness of the human race are worked 

 out? 



VI. THE GKEAT SOLAR ECLIPSE OF AUGUST 18, 1868. 



By William Ceookes, F.R.S., &c., Editor. 



The phenomena attending a total eclipse of the sun have always 

 been of a most impressive character, but only within a comparatively 

 recent period have they been observed systematically, and still 

 more recently looked forward to as an opjiortunity for solving 

 many important problems in solar physics. Previous to 1860, our 

 knowledge of the physical constitution of the sun was based almost 

 exclusively on theoretical grounds. In that year, however, a some- 

 what important echpse of the sun occurred, the line of totality 

 passing over Spain, and expeditions from different countries were 

 organized to observe it. The most important of these was that 

 taken from England by Dr. Warren De la Rue, who especially 

 devoted himself to securing photographic records of the progress 

 of the echpse. The point on which information was principally 

 sought was the physical constitution of the red protuberances, for 



