March 21, 1889] 



NATURE 



487 



Japanese " Koji." 



In the current number of NATURE (p. 469) is a note upon the 

 preparation of Japanese koji, taken from the American Consular 

 Reports. 



In Nature, vol. xxiv. p. 468, will be found 

 a report of a paper read before the British 

 Association on this subject, supplemented 

 in the following number (p. 509) by a 

 letter from the author giving more details. 

 The whole subject was exhaustively treated 

 in a paper on "The Diastase of Koji," 

 read before the Royal Society in 1 881, and 

 also in a memoir on "6'<//v-brewing," 

 published by the University of Tokio in 

 the same year. Further, an abstract of 

 the latter appeared in the Chemical News, 

 November 11, 188 1, p. 230. 



I shall feel obliged if you will insert this 

 letter, as most people, on reading the note 

 in Nature, would be led to think that 

 Prof. Georgeson had made observations 

 which were previously unknown. This is 

 not the case. R. W. Atkinson. 



44 Loudoun Square, Cardiff, 

 March 18. 



" The absence of lines from the corona spectrum shows 

 a great reduction in the temperature of the sun, and 

 such a marked change in the sun should produce a corre- 

 sponding change on the earth, so that the associated 



THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE 

 OF JANUARY i. 



BY the kindness of Mr. Todd we are 

 enabled to give a drawing sum- 

 marizing in a general way the pheno- 

 mena observed during the last total 

 eclipse. A comparison of this with the 

 records at the two preceding sun-spot 

 minima indicates very clearly that we 

 have now very definite information 

 concerning the corona of the sun as 

 observed at the minimum period of 

 sun-spots. 



Everything written relating to'the 

 form of the corona in 1878 is now 

 strengthened by still another critical 

 observation at the succeeding mini- 

 mum. It remains to be seen whether 

 the same marked absence of bright 

 lines in the coronal spectrum has been 

 noted. 



Here is an extract from what I 

 wrote in 1878 : — 



" The utter disappearance of the 

 large bright red corona of former 

 years in favour of a smaller and white 

 one in this year of minimum, struck 

 everybody. Indeed it is a remarkable 

 thing that after all our past study of 

 eclipses, this last one should have 

 exhibited phenomena the least antici- 

 pated. It isolates the matter that 

 gives us a continuous spectrum from 

 the other known gaseous constituents. 

 The present eclipse has accomplished, 

 if nothing else, the excellent result of 

 intensifying our knowledge concerning 

 the running down of the solar energy. 

 With the reduction of the number of 

 spots or prominences for the last four 

 years, the terrestrial magnetism has 

 been less energetic than it has been 

 for the preceding forty years, while at 

 both ends of this period we have had 

 famines in India and China. 



" As the sun is the great prime =-' 

 mover of earth, and as every cloud, every air current 

 depends upon it, its present quiet condition is worthy of 

 the most minute study. 



Fig. I. — The equatorial extension and Polar tracry observed at the minimum of 1867. 



Fig. 



. — Tracing of the results obtained by the cameras in 1878, showing inner portion of equatorial 

 extension, and how th« surfaces of it cut the concentric atmosphere in lat. 35° N. and S., or 

 thereabouts. 



terrestrial phenomena should be carefully observed. 

 Hence I regard this eclipse as the most important that 

 has been observed for many years, ns it throws much- 



