Il8 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS, 



SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE SUN. 



WHEN we consider the intense heat which has prevailed 

 in Europe during July, and the circumstance that in 

 America also the heat has been excessive, insomuch 

 that in New York the number of deaths during the 

 week ending July 6 was three times greater than the 

 average, we are naturally led to the conclusion that 

 the sun himself is giving out more heat than usual. 

 Though not endorsing such an opinion, which, indeed, 

 is not warranted by the facts, since terrestrial causes 

 are quite sufficient to explain the recent unusual heats, 

 we cannot refrain from noting, as at least a curious 

 coincidence, that at the very time when the heat has 

 been so great, the great central luminary of the solar 

 system has been the scene of a very remarkable dis- 

 turbance an event, in fact, altogether unlike any 

 which astronomers have hitherto observed. 



Now certain Italian spectroscopists Eespighi, Sec- 

 chi, Tacchini, and others have set themselves the 

 task of keeping a continual watch upon the chromato- 

 sphere. They draw pictures of it, and of the mighty 

 coloured prominences which are from time to time 

 upreared out of, or through, the chromatospheric en- 

 velope. They note the vapours which are present, as 

 well as what can be learned of the heat at which these 

 vapours exist, their pressure, their rate of motion, and 



