Feb. 15, 1 872 J 



NATURE 



down the serpent's throat, emerged slowly in all his glory from 

 the opposite side. 



If science gains as much in knowledge by the observations 

 made by the different eclipse parties as the wily Brahmins 

 have gained by this late eclipse in money, then a great deal of 

 knowledge will have been gained about all those mysterious 

 ]ihenomena by which Father Sol is still surrounded ; for every 

 village in India, as far as the country was affected by the eclipse, 

 paid willing contributions to the Brahmins, that these holy men 

 might use all their influence (by pra)ers, fastings, and offerings) 

 with their deities in order to induce them to come to the rescue 

 of the sun in the hour of his great danger and need ; and I hear 

 that the Brahmins hereabouts had an abundant harvest in money 

 from the poor villagers, to whom they preached months befoie 

 the great danger impending over the sun ; and as these poor people 

 are not yet bold enough to doubt a single word of these heaven- 

 born Brahmins, they contributed to the best of their abiUties to 

 the Brahmins, in whose hands, as they believe, rests not only the 

 fate of men but of the whole universe, as the Brahmins are the 

 connecting links between men and the deities ruling this and 

 other worlds. An event like the eclipse shows how much im- 

 portance is to be attached to all the reports and writings about 

 the great progress in enlightenment of the people of India. 

 Knowledge does not reform their manners ; many well-informed 

 and educated natives performed all the superstitious ceremonies 

 connected wiih the eclipse, with just as much zeal as the igno- 

 rant r) ot, and many of those 'who talk to us Europeans about 

 the folly of all the old superstitions, went back again, and per- 

 formed their rites in the manner of their forefathers, fearing, 

 that if they did not do so. Father Sol might be lost for good, 

 and that we might have to end our remaining days in the con- 

 stant gloom of starlight. 



I have already mentioned that, as far as my observations go, 

 I observed that the shape or form of the corona or glory which 

 surrounded the eclipsed sun underwent changes in form even 

 during the short space of two minutes; but you will easily 

 see that an observer with no other means than an ordinary good 

 telescope, his naked'eye, and a photographic camera, was quite 

 incompetent to draw any conclusion ; suffice it therefore to 

 s.ay that the changes in the shape of the corona during totality 

 can but be compared to the slow tiansformation of forms in 

 a dissolving-view apparatus, or perhaps more correctly to the 

 changes of form and shape we obseri'e in isolated thin clouds. 

 I will not express more of my opinion on the nature of the 

 corona than that I believe it consists or partakes of the nature ol 

 shining, illuminated ether, perhaps somewhat of the same nature 

 as the aurora borcalis ; why I think so %\ill appear below. 



About eight or ten seconds before totality ended, the moon 

 appeared as if it had made a jerk (stumbled against something), 

 and that jerk was accompanied by a tremendous flickering move- 

 ment and momentary brightening up of the corona. This 

 momentary phenomenon (lor all passed in less or not more than 

 one second) I am unable to describe more clearly, and I cannot 

 compare it to anything except to those flickering movements 

 .and brightenings up observable in the aurora boreali?. I spent 

 one entire night during the winter of 1S45 in watching a grand 

 aurora borealis in North Germany, but had nearly forgotten all 

 about it, but the above ajipear.ance in the corona towards the 

 cloFe of totality .reminded me so forcibly of it that I hold 

 that something similar is connected with the corona. I was 

 watching the eclipse wiih a strong magnifier in the camera 

 obscura, and three gentlemen near me uacd telescopes, and we 

 all observed the same — I in the camera, and they with their 

 telescopes — and the flickering caused us all to express some 

 surprise, such as "Look ! look !" 



In the evening I had some conversation on the eclipse in 

 general with the telegiaph master, a very scientific gentleman, 

 who, without my saying anything about the matter, told me that 

 he observed such a phenomenon. 



I think this is about all I can say, as the play and charges of 

 colours which were visible are quite beyond my sphere ; I can 

 only say I saw them, but I do not remember their order and 

 succession, nor changes. 



In conclusion I must once more repeat that what I say must be 

 taken for what it may be worth. 1 merely speak of the appear- 

 ances without accounting, or being able to account, for them ; 

 and this will not be surprising when those who spend their 

 lives in these studies can often only offer conjectures as to the 

 real nature of these matters. 



Ootacamund, Dec. 22, 1871 J. Boesinger 



Natural Science at Oxford 



The regulations relating to Natural Science at Oxford, re- 

 printed in a recent number of Nature,* will have considerable 

 interest for those who follow the progress of such .studies at the 

 Universities. 



The Natural .Science School is one of the five " Final Schools." 

 There .are examinations which take place at the end of the Uni- 

 versity course ; in any one or more of them it is open to candi- 

 dates to seek for honours. Hitherto the Natural Science .School 

 has offered a threefold division of its subjects, namely, Biology, 

 Physics, and Chemistry. A candidate was allowed to select any 

 of these three divisions, and was expected to show, in the first 

 place, a general acquaintance with the subject matter ; and in the 

 second, a detailed knowledge of some particular branch of it. 

 The selection of the "special subject" was left entirely to the 

 candidate, but the liberty of choice (in iheory a most valuable one) 

 was frequently altogether abused. The object was, apparenlly, 

 in many cases, to turn the tables on the examiners, and by 

 selecting matters likely to be out of the way of their reading, to 

 make the examination almost fictitious. It is to remedy this 

 that the new Board of Studies has laid down the scope of the 

 general and special knowledge which will be required from candi- 

 dates for the future. 



The regulations at present published relate only to Biology. 

 I venture to think that they by no means form such a philosophi- 

 cally-arranged course as might have been expected. 



The first paragraph states the nature of the ^'.v/tvw/ kno^vledge 

 which will be demanded. This i> defined to consist of General 

 and Comparative Anatomy, Human and Comparative Physiology 

 and Physiological Chemistry, and the general philosophy of the 

 subject. The books recommended are the best commentary on 

 the meaning attached to these headings. The list certainly does 

 not err from defect of copiousness, yet it is noticeable that 

 although it contains all the common zoological text books, it 

 does not include any distinctively botanical book whatever. I di) 

 not mtan to say that some of the authors named in it do not 

 touch on Botany, but this is so far accidenl.al that they appaienlly 

 owe their position on the list to their bearing on zoological 

 matters. It appears to me therefore that the only conclusion 

 which can be arrived at from the regulations is that by Biology is 

 not intended General Biolog)', but only Biology from a zoological 

 standpoint. This is, I think, to be regretted. A general 

 acquaintance with the principal forms of vegetable life ought to 

 form part of a comprehensive biological course, and should be 

 required even of those who intend to devote their strength to the 

 study of the animal economy alone. 



The fifth ]jaragraph appears to admit of Botany being taken 

 up to a certain extent as an alternative subject, but this does not 

 remedy its practical absence from the general scheme. I can 

 see nothing in the regulations to preclude a candidate taking 

 high honours in "Biology" who shall, for example, be quite 

 ignorant of theanatomical differences between a cycad and a palm, 

 or shall be quite unable to indicate any points of agreement 

 between a mushroom and a mould. Any one in this predica- 

 ment might perhaps excuse himself as a zoologist, but he can 

 hardly be allowed to claim the whole of Biology ss his province. 

 W. T. Thiselton Dyer 



Auroral Statistics 



II.wiNr. had already to answer many questions and calm some 

 fears touching the recent brilliant aurora, and its prototype in 

 October 1S70, "when the Franco-German war was raging," I 

 beg to send you some condensed statistical returns of auroral 

 phenomena during the last eleven years, prepared and printed 

 before the recent manifestation, and to be published in a few 

 days, but as a part of a ponderous volume not likely to be gene- 

 rally accessible, viz., vol. xiii. of the "Edinburgh Astronomical 

 Observations," 



In that book I have endeavoured, amongst other subjects of 

 professional duty, to exhibit the final mean results of nearly 

 7,025,000 meteorological observations of all kinds, by 55 ob- 

 servers of the Scottish Meteorological Society, spread over the 

 country at as many stations ; and, after a preliminary process of 

 compression into 32 numerical tables, the quintessence of the 

 whole appears on a single page, whereof the 2Sth line gives a 

 numerical expression for each month of the year ; combining the 



* See Nature, No. iiS, p. 270. 



