NA TURB 



189 



THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 1S79 



HISTORICAL SUN-DARKENINGS 



NOT a few persons appear to have been much exer- 

 cised by a prognostication emanating from an 

 American source, whereby the public are forewarned of 

 an approaching period of sun-darkening to extend over 

 several days. History does record instances in which the 

 sun has been abnormally obscured or its light paled to 

 such an extent that stars have come into view in the day- 

 time, and Erman, Humboldt, and other writers have 

 brought these occasions into prominent notice, the former 

 in connection with the presumed passage of dense mete- 

 oric streams between the earth and the sun. The earliest 

 mention of such a phenomenon appears to be in the year 

 B.C. 44, about the time of the death of Julius Caesar, w-hen 

 we read in Plutarch and Dio Cassius that the sun was 

 paler than usual for a whole year, and gave less heat, the 

 air continuing cold and misty. The darkness for two 

 hours on August 22, A.D. 358, appears to have pre- 

 ceded the great earthquake of Nicomedia. Two years 

 later in aU the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire 

 we are told there was "caligo a primo aurorse ex- 

 ortu adusque meridiem," and the stars were seen, the 

 further description being rather applicable to a total solar 

 eclipse ; but neither the eclipse of March 4, 360, nor that 

 of August 28, would be visible in those parts. Again, 

 when Alaric appeared before Rome, the darkness was 

 such that stars were seen in the daytime (Schnurrer, 

 " Chronik der Seuchen "). Following the Tableites Chrono- 

 logiques of the Abb^ Lenglet Dufresnoy, Alaric invested 

 Rome A.D. 409, and became master of the city on August 

 24, 410 ; there was a visible eclipse of the sun on June 18 

 of the latter year, therefore while the siege was in progress ; 

 but on calculating the circumstances under which it would 

 be seen at Rome, introducing the latest lunar elements, it 

 appears that little more than half the sun's disk would be 

 covered at the greatest phase about 2h. 40m. p.m., and no 

 sensible diminution of sun-light would be occasioned by 

 the eclipse. In 536, 567, and 626 we find mention of 

 long periods of diminished sun-light. Schnurrer records 

 that in 733, a year after the Saracens had been driven 

 back beyond the Pyrenees, consequent on their defeat at 

 Tours, "the sun darkened in an alarming manner on 

 August 19 ; there appeared to be no eclipse by the moon, 

 but rather an interruption from some meteoric sub- 

 stance." There was an eclipse of the sun, annular 

 but nearly total, on the morning of August 14; it is 

 mentioned in the Saxon Chronicle, which tells us 

 " the sun's disk was like a black shield." The near 

 coincidence of dates suggests in this case a connec- 

 tion between the darkness and the eclipse. In 934, 

 according to a Portuguese historian, the sun lost its 

 ordinary light for several months, and this is followed 

 by the doubtful statement that an opening in the sky 

 seemed to take place, with many flashes of lightning, and 

 the full blaze of sunshine was suddenly restored. In 

 1091, on September 29, not 21, as given in some of 

 the translations of Humboldt's Cosmos, Schnurrer relates 

 that there was a darkening of the sun which lasted three 

 hours, and after which it had a peculiar colour which 

 occasioned great alarm. In another place we read : 

 Vol. XX.— No. S'^4 



" Fuit eclipsis Solis 1 1 Kal. Octob. fere tres horas : Sol 

 circa meridiem dire nigrescebat " : there was no visible 

 eclipse at this time, and the November eclipse ■■ as central 

 only in the southern parts of the earth. A century later, 

 or in June, 1 191, according to Schnurrer, the sun was 

 again darkened, with certain attendant eifects upon 

 nature : here the cause is easily found ; on June 23 there 

 was a total eclipse, in which the moon' s shadow traversed 

 the continent of Europe from Holland to the Crimea ; the 

 eclipse was total in this country between the coasts of 

 Cumberland and Yorkshire. Erman refers to a sun- 

 darkening on February 12, 1106, which was accompanied 

 by meteors, and we read in the cometographies that on 

 the 4th, or, according to others, on the Sth, of February 

 in this year a star was seen from the third to the ninth 

 hour of the day, which was distant from the sun " only a 

 foot and a half.' ' Matthew Paris and Matthew of West- 

 minster term this star a comet, and we may take it to 

 have been the same which, later in the same month, was 

 observed in China under the sign Pisces, and which at one 

 time was supposed to have been identical with the great 

 comet of 1680; this body, however, would not appear to have 

 been sufficiently near the earth as, even on the assumption 

 of a denser constitution than usual with comets, to account 

 for a diminution of the solar rays, by its intervention. On 

 the last day of February, 1206, according to a Spanish 

 writer, there was complete darkness for six hours. In 

 1241, "five months after the Mongol battle of Leignitz," 

 the sun was so obscured, and the darkness became so 

 great, that the stars were seen at the ninth hour about 

 Michaelmas. In this case, again, the darkness referred 

 to was undoubtedly due to the total eclipse on October 6, 

 of which Prof. Schiaparelli has collected a full account 

 from the Itahan writers. Lastly, in 1547, from April 23-25, 

 Kepler relates on the authority of Gemma, "the sun 

 appeared as though suffused with blood, and many stars 

 were visible at noon-day." Schnurrer thought this pheno- 

 menon was what the Germans call an " Hohenrauch," 

 notwithstanding the visibility of stars. 



From the above brief summary of what have been 

 considered abnormal sun-darkenings, we see that in 

 several cases the diminution of light has been due to the 

 ordinary effects of a total eclipse, while it is clear that 

 there are no grounds in the historical evidence for any 

 prediction of a period of darkness. The nervous in these 

 matters, and it would really appear that such exist, may 

 take consolation therefrom. J. R. Hind 



SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE 



BRITISH agriculture, in most of its aspects, will come 

 into prominent notice next week. The great show 

 at Kilburn, coming as it does just now at a time of great 

 depression for farming at home, ought to teach us some 

 useful lessons. It should tell us that the days of rule of 

 thumb, the days in which we did as our fathers did are 

 over. New means, new methods, new materials, new 

 economies, new crops, must be associated with wider 

 views of what the world wants and with more precise 

 knowledge of what our little islands can best supply. 



If we study soils, manures, crops, live stock, imple- 

 ments, the after-treatment of farm produce, or the instruc- 

 tion of agriculturists and of labourers— in every direction 

 we shall learn how beneficial has been, and may still be, 



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