ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGEESS. 



assumption of the title of Empress of India by 

 Queen Victoria, on January 1st. The proc- 

 lamation was made at Delhi, and conducted 

 with all the pomp and splendor of an Eastern 

 court. The political division of India was 

 changed in 1877 by the incorporation of Oude 

 in the Northwest Provinces. Large districts 

 of India and China were visited by severe 

 famines in 1877. In India they prevailed 

 chiefly in the presidencies of Madras and 

 Bombay, and the distressed districts in these 

 two provinces included an area of 138,700 

 square miles, and a population of 27,000,000. 

 The measures adopted by the Government for 

 the relief of the sufferers diminished many of 

 the worst features of the distress, if they were 

 not able entirely to alleviate the suffering. In 

 China, the Government contributed very little, 

 and the suffering produced by the famine, as 

 described by missionaries, was truly horrible. 

 (See INDIA and CHINA.) 



The relations of India with its neighbors on 

 the west, which in the beginning of the year 

 promised to be of a friendly character, after- 

 ward became very threatening. Even the 

 Khan of Kelat, who during the preceding 

 year had given proofs of friendship to India, 

 was reported to entertain hostile feelings 

 toward the British, while Shere Ali, the Amir 

 of Cabul, openly negotiated with the Russians. 

 The occupation by the Indian Government of 

 the highly-important town of Quetta, in Be- 

 loochistan, in the beginning of the year, and 

 of the towns of Dadur and Mitri later on, was 

 considered an important step toward the as- 

 cendency of British influence in Central Asia, 

 and was bitterly resented by the Khan of Kelat. 

 In this feeling he was strengthened by the 

 Amir of Cabul, who called upon him to join 

 in an alliance with the Russians. This the 

 Khan of Kelat refused to do, and even Shere 

 Ali was reported to have been dissuaded from 

 his negotiations with Russia by a special envoy 

 sent to him from Constantinople. (See AF- 

 GHANISTAN and BELOOCHISTAN.) 



Japan was, in 1877, the scene of a rebellion 

 which, in point of numbers engaged, and its 

 duration, was certainly the most important that 

 the Government of the Mikado had yet encoun- 

 tered. (See JAPAN.) 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND 

 PROGRESS. The Discovery of Oxygen in the 

 Sun. The American Journal of Science for 

 August, 1877, contains an important article by 

 Prof. Henry Draper on the discovery of oxy- 

 gen in the sun by photography. In previous 

 experiments the presence of the various ele- 

 ments found in the sun was indicated solely by 

 dark, or absorption, lines in the solar spectrum. 

 The discovery of Dr. Draper consists in demon- 

 strating that oxygen reveals itself by bright 

 lines or bands, and does not give ahsorption- 

 linesJike the metals. "We must therefore," 

 the discoverer remarks, " change our theory of 

 the solar spectrum, and no longer regard it 

 merely as a continuous spectrum with certain 



rays absorbed by a layer of ignited metalli 

 vapors, but as having also bright lines and 

 bands superposed on the background of con- 

 tinuous spectrum. Such a conception not 

 only opens the way to the discovery of others 

 of the non-metals, sulphur, phosphorus, eele- 

 niurn, chlorine, bromine, iodine, fluorine, car- 

 bon, etc., but also may account for some of the 

 so-called dark lines by regarding them as in- 

 tervals between bright lines." Dr. Draper- 

 continues : 



From purely theoretical considerations derived 

 from terrestrial chemistry and the nebular hypothe- 

 sis, the presence of oxygen in the sun might have 

 been strongly suspected, for this element is currently 

 stated to form eight-ninths of the water of the globe, 

 one-third of the crust of the earth, and one-fifth of 

 the air, and should therefore probably be a large con- 

 stituent of every member of the solar system. On 

 the other hand, the discovery of oxygen and prob- 

 ably other non-metals in the sun gives increased 

 strength to the nebular hypothesis, because to many 

 persons the absence of this important group has 

 presented a considerable difficulty. 



At first sight it seems rather difficult to believe 

 that an ignited gas in the solar envelope should not 

 be indicated by dark lines in the solar spectrum, and 

 should appear not to act under the law, " A gas, when 

 ignited, absorbs rays of the same refrangibility as 

 those it emits." But, in fact, the substances hither- 

 to investigated in the sun are really metallic vapors, 

 hydrogen probably coming under that rule. The 

 non-metals obviously may behave differently. It is 

 easy to speculate on the causes of such behavior, and 

 it may be suggested that the reason of the non-ap- 

 pearance of a dark line may be, that the intensity 

 of the light from a great thickness of ignited oxygen 

 overpowers the effect of the photosphere, just a*, if 

 a person were to look at a candle-flame through a 

 yard thickness of ignited sodium vapor, he would 

 only see bright sodium lines, and no dark absorption- 

 lines. Of course such an explanation would neces- 

 sitate the hypothesis that ignited gases^ such as 

 oxygen, give forth a relatively large proportion of the 

 solar light. In the outburst of T Corona, Huggins 

 showed that hydrogen could give bright lines on a 

 background of spectrum analogous to that of the sun. 



The Sun-Spot Period. Prof. Wolf's Astro- 

 nomische Mittheilungen, No. xlii., February, 

 1877, contains an exhaustive discussion of sun- 

 spot observations from 1749 to 1877. The first 

 thirty-five years average ninety days of obser- 

 vation per annum ; the next thirty-five, sev- 

 enty; from 1819 to 1848, two hundred and 

 sixty; and from 1849 to the close of 1876, 

 three hundred and seven : making, in one hun- 

 dred and twenty-eight years, twenty-two thou- 

 sand days in which the number of sun-spots 

 had been determined. Some earlier records, 

 from 1610 to 1748, are also discussed. The 

 mean length of the twenty-four periods is 

 found to be 11.1 years, subject, however, to 

 considerable variation ; the shortest being 7.3, 

 and the longest 16.1 years. Dr. Wolf has 

 found, moreover, that the average time of in- 

 crease from minimum to maximum is but 

 four and one-half years, while that of decrease 

 is six and one-half years. From the whole dis- 

 cussion he finds evidence of a longer sun-spot 

 period, which he fixes at about one hundred 

 and seventy-eight years. This cycle, as he re- 



