1868. ] Astronomy. 550 
instrument, constructed for the party by Mr. Browning, we may 
safely assume that the views will prove valuable and instructive. 
Dr. Janssen, who was at the head of the French expedition, has 
telegraphed to Paris that the spectrum of the red prominences has 
been observed. The result he describes as “remarkable and un- 
expected.” He does not state what is the exact nature of the 
spectrum; but as he adds that the protuberances are gaseous, we 
are enabled to conclude that it consists of bright lines. The pro- 
tuberances had never before been submitted to spectroscopic 
analysis, and considerable doubts had existed among astronomers 
respecting their real nature. For the most part, however, astro- 
nomers had supposed the protuberances to consist of matter resem- 
bling our terrestrial clouds; that is, formed by the condensation 
of invisible vapours into minute liquid globules. This opinion will 
now have to be abandoned. ‘These enormous masses, many of 
which exceed the planet Jupiter in volume, must now be recog- 
nzied as consisting principally of luminous gas. They are, in fact, 
flames—in reality as in appearance. This result is one of the most 
interesting which has for a long time been obtained by astronomers. 
Lieut. Herschel sends a telegram confirmatory of Dr. Janssen’s. 
He appears to have had unfavourable weather, but one protuberance 
was caught in the spectroscope, and the spectrum found to consist 
of bright lines. He adds, that no bright lines were seen in the 
spectrum of the corona. He found the polarization of the corona 
to be solar. 
We shall await with interest the publication of fuller reports of 
these observations. 
Mr. Huggins has made a very important series of observations 
upon the second comet of the year. ‘This object was discovered by 
Winnecke, at Carlsruhe, on June 18, and also independently on the 
same night by M. Béquet, Assistant-Astronomer at the Observatory 
of Marseilles. Mr. Huggins found the comet to consist of a nearly 
circular coma, which became rather suddenly brighter towards the 
centre, where there was a nearly round spot of light, from which a 
tail could be traced for nearly a degree. The spectroscope resolved 
the light of the comet into three very broad bands, which do not 
correspond either in appearance or in position with the bands seen 
in the spectrum of Brorsen’s comet. The brightest is in the middle. 
Its least refrangible end is the brightest, and is somewhat less 
refrangible than the double line 6. The more refrangible end of 
the band lies about one-third of the way from F towards b. For 
about two-thirds of its length from the brightest end this band is 
almost uniformly bright; but from thence towards its more refran- 
gible end it diminishes considerably in brightness and in apparent 
breadth. ‘The more refrangible of the other two bands is consider- 
ably more refrangible than F. Like the former, its least refrangible 
