American Expeditions and Solar Eclipse 151 



and Kirchoff J in detecting minute amounts of metallic 

 bases by the lines which they produce in the spectrum, 

 each metal revealing itself by a special line or lines. Of 

 these and of the instrument he gave a description. For 

 purposes of qualitative analysis, as was shown by examples, 

 this method exceeds in delicacy any other in existence. 



Professor Loomis, 2 a guest, gave an account of American 

 expeditions to observe the recent solar eclipse. In that to 

 Labrador, though the state of the weather prevented the 

 taking of photographs, the contacts were seen, and an 

 observer, separated from the rest, saw the red flames with 

 the naked eye. The expedition to Vancouver Island had 

 no photographic apparatus, but obtained good observations 

 of the contacts. He also mentioned that during the aurora 

 of Sept. 2nd, 1859, which extended all over the United 

 States, the electric influence on the telegraph wires was 

 so strong that for about an hour messages were transmitted 

 from Boston to Portland (fully 100 miles) and back, by its 

 agency alone. The direction of the current also was con- 

 stantly changing. On another line, messages were trans- 

 mitted from Philadelphia to Pittsburg (about 300 miles), 

 though with less steadiness than in the other case. The 

 auroral current was frequently strong enough to overpower 

 the ordinary battery. 



Nov. 22nd, I24th meeting. Dr. Hooker, writing to 

 Professor Huxley from Beirut, announced his discovery 

 of moraines in the Lebanon, perhaps also in the Anti- 

 Lebanon. In the former range the heads of the valleys 



1 Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811-1900), born at Gdttingen, was 

 successively Professor of Chemistry at Marburg, Breslau, and Heidelberg. 

 Of his many discoveries, among them the invention of the magnesium 

 light, the greatest was spectrum analysis, in conjunction with Gustav 

 Robert Kirchoff (1824-87), born at Konigsberg, who became Professor of 

 Physics at Berlin in 1874 and was also notable for his researches in electri- 

 city, optics, and the mechanical theory of heat. The Davy Medal was 

 awarded to them jointly in 1877, the Copley to Bunsen in 1860, and the 

 Rumford to Kirchoff in 1862. 



1 Elias Loomis was born in Connecticut on Aug. 7th, 1811, graduated 

 at Yale, won distinction in Physical Mathematics, did much research, and 

 wrote largely on subjects more or less connected with astronomy, returning 

 ultimately to Yale as Professor of that subject. He died Aug. i5th, 1889. 



