146 COSMOS. 



peculiar and not sufficiently investigated diaphanic condition 

 of individual strata of our atmosphere. Hevelius states*dis- 

 tinctly that, during a total eclipse on the 25th of April, 1642, 

 the sky was covered with brilliant stars, the atmosphere per- 

 fectly clear, and yet, with the different magnifying powers 

 which he employed, not a vestige of the Moon could be seen. 

 In other cases, likewise very rare, only separate parts of the 

 Moon are feebly visible. During a total eclipse, the disk gen- 

 erally appears red ; and, indeed, in all degrees of intensity of 

 color, even passing, when the Moon is far distant from the 

 Earth, into a fiery and glowing red. "While lying at anchor 

 off the island of Baru, not far from Carthagena de Indias, 

 half a century ago (29th of March, 1801), I observed a total 

 eclipse, and was extremely struck with the. greater luminous 

 intensity of the Moon's disk under a tropical sky than in my 

 native north.* The whole phenomenon is known to be a 

 consequence of refraction, since, as Kepler very correctly ex- 

 presses himself (Paralip Astron. pars Optica, p. 893), the 

 Sun's rays are innectedt by their passage through the at- 



* "On con<joit que la viyacite de la lumiere rouge ne depend par 

 uniquement de 1'etat de I'atmosphere, qui ret'racte, plus cm moias affai- 

 bl is, les rayons solaires, en les euflechissant dans le cone d 'ombre, mais 

 qu'elle est modifiee surtout par la transparence variable de la partie de 

 1' atmosphere travers laquelle nous apercevons la Lune eclipsee. Sous 

 les tropiques, une grande serenite du clel, uue dissemination uniforrne 

 des vapeurs diiniuueut 1'extinction de la lumiere que le clisque lunaire 

 nous renvoie." Humboldt, Voyage aux Plgions Eqiiinoxicdes, torn, iii., 

 p. 544; and Recueil d'Observ. Astronomiqites, vol. ii.. p. ]45. " It may 

 easily be understood that the intensity of the red light does not depend 

 solely upon the state of the atmosphere, which refracts more or less 

 feebly the solar rays by inflecting them into the shadow cone, but that 

 it is especially modified by the vai'iable transparency of that part of 

 the atmosphere across which we perceive the eclipsed Moon. Under 

 the tropics a great serenity of sky, a uniform dissemination of vapors, 

 diminish the extinction of the light which the lunar disk sends toward 

 ns." Arago observes: "Les rayons solaires arriveut a notre satellite 

 par 1'effet cruue refraction et a la suite d'une absorption daus les couches 

 les plus bases de Patmosphei-e terrestre ; pourraieut-ils avoir unuautre 

 teinte que le rouge?" Annuaire for 1842. p. 528. "The solar rays 

 reach our planet by the .effect of a refraction, and subsequently to an 

 absorption (partial) in the lower strata of the Eartn's atmosphere. How 

 can they have any other colors than red ?" 



t Babinet declares the reddening to be a consequence of diffraction, 

 in a memoir as to the different share of the white, blue, aud red lights 

 which are produced by the inflection. See his Reflections upon the 

 Total Eclipse of the Moon on the 19th of March, 1848, in Moigno's Re- 

 pertoire d'Optique Moderne, 1850, torn, iv., p. 1656. " La lumiere dif- 

 fractee qui penetre dans 1'ombre de la Terre, predoraine toujours et 

 a etc seule sensible. Elle est d'autant plus rouge ou orangee 



