THE SUN'S SPOTS. 381 



ascribe to nucleoid spots those obscurations during which stars 

 were partly visible, as in total solar eclipses. 



As, according to Du Sejour's calculation, the longest pos- 



nigra quaedam macula, idque feria tertia die decima nona 

 mensis Regebi . . . ." This appearance was believed 

 to be the planet Venus, and the same black spot (macula 

 nigra) was supposed to have been seen for 91 days (probably 

 with intermissions of twelve or thirteen days ?) . Soon after 

 this, the reigning Chalif Motassem died. I have selected the 

 following seventeen examples from a large number of facts 

 collected from the historical records derived from popular 

 tradition, as to the occurrence of a sudden decrease in the 

 light of the Sun : 



45 B.C. At the death of Julius Csesar : after which event 

 the Sun remained pale for a whole year, and gave less 

 than its usual warmth; on which account the air was 

 thick, cold, and hazy, and fruit did not ripen. Plu- 

 tarch, in JuL Cces. cap. 87; Dio Cass. xliv.; Virg. Georg. 

 i. 466. 



33 A.D. The year of the Crucifixion. " Now from the 

 sixth hour there was darkness over all the land till the 

 ninth hour." (St. Matthew, xxvii. 45.) According to 

 St. Luke, xxiii. 45, " the Sun was darkened." In order 

 to explain and corroborate these narrations, Eusebius 

 brings forward an eclipse of the Sun in the 202nd 

 Olympiad, which had been noticed by the chronicler, 

 Phlegon of Tralles. (Ideler, Handbuch der mathem. 

 Chronologic, Bd. ii. p. 417.) Wurm has, however, 

 shown that the eclipse which occurred during this 

 Olympiad, and was visible over the whole of Asia 

 Minor, must have happened as early as the 24th of 

 November, 29 A.D. The day of the Crucifixion corre- 

 sponded with the Jewish Passover (Ideler, Bd. i. pp. 

 515-520), on the 14th of the month Nisan, and the 

 Passover was always celebrated at the time of the full 

 moon. The Sun cannot therefore have been darkened 

 for three hours by the Moon. The ' Jesuit Scheiner 

 thinks the decrease in the light might be ascribed to the 

 occurrence of large Sun-spots. 



