488 
NATURE 
[ Oct. 19, 1871 

The only point of the least interest in the matter (if the matter 
has any interest at all) is the fact that Prof. Newcomb did not 
discuss the observations of 1769, as I had believed. I have 
already admitted this, and withdrawn those expressions of com- 
mendation which I had founded on the strongly-worded letter of 
Prof. Smyth, so that I am rather at a loss to know what purpose 
Mr. Lynn had specially in view when he wrote his letter. I 
thank him, however, as warmly as though I knew what he meant. 
Ricup, A. PRocror 


SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITIES 
HE following courses of lectures will be delivered at 
the University of Oxford in Natural and Physical 
Science during the ensuing term:—The Sedleian Pro- 
fessor of Natural Philosophy, the Rev. Bartholomew 
Price, M.A., will deliver a course of Lectures on Light, 
on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, at one o’clock, 
commencing October 19th, at the Lecture Room, Mu- 
seum, Upper Corridor South. The Savilian Professor of 
Astronomy, the Rev. C. Pritchard, M.A., proposes to give 
two courses of lectures during the present term ; the one on 
Astronomical Instruments, the other on the Lunar Theory. 
The Professor of Experimental Philosophy, R. B. Clifton, 
M.A., will give a course of Lectures on Experimental 
Optics, on Wednesdays and Fridays, at twelve o’clock, 
commencing October 20, at the Physical Laboratory, 
University Museum. The Physical Laboratory of the 
University will be open daily for instruction in Practical 
Physics, from ten to four o’clock, on and after Thursday, 
October 19. The Linacre Professor of Anatomy and 
Physiology, G. Rolleston, D.M., will lecture on Circula- 
tion and Respiration, on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Satur- 
days, at one o'clock, commencing October 20, at the 
Museum. The Professor proposes to form classes for 
Practical Instruction, as in former terms. Persons who 
join these classes will come to the lectures on Saturdays 
at one o'clock, and will also come to the Museum on 
three mornings in the week for study and demonstration, 
under the superintendence of Mr. Charles Robertson, the 
Demonstrator of Anatomy, and Mr. C. S. Taylor, of 
Merton College. The Hope Professor of Zoology, J. O. 
Westwood, M.A., will not lecture during the present term, 
being engaged in the classification of the Hope, Burchell, 
Bell, and other collections, at the New University Mu- 
seum, where he will be happy to see gentlemen desirous 
of studying the Articulated Animals, daily, between 1 and 
5 P.M. A course of lectures will be given on behalf of 
the Professor of Chemistry, by A. Vernon Harcourt, M.A., 
in continuation of the Professors course, on Tuesdays 
and Saturdays. at eleven o'clock, commencing October 
21, atthe Museum. There will also be an Explanatory 
and Catechetical Lecture on Thursdays, at eleven o'clock, 
to commence on Thursday, October 26. The Laboratory 
of the University will be open daily for instruction in 
Practical Chemistry from 9 A.M. to 3 P.M., on and after 
Monday, October 16. The ordinary course of instruction 
in the laboratory includes those methods of Qualitative 
Analysis, a knowledge of which is required of candidates 
for honours in the School of Natural Science who make 
Chemistry their special subject. In addition to this two 
courses of instruction will be given in the Laboratory, the 
one on the Methods of Qualitative Analysis, the other a 
course of elementary practical instruction in Chemical 
Manipulation, intended for those commencing the study 
of Chemistry. 
At Cambridge the following lectures in Natural Science 
will be delivered during Michaelmas Term in connection 
with Trinity, St. John’s, and Sidney Sussex Colleges :— 
On Electricity and Magnetism (for the Natural Sciences 
Tripos), by Mr. Trotter, Trinity College, on Mondays, 
Wednesdays, and Fridays, at 10, commencing Wednes- 
day, October 18. On General Physics, Sound, and 

Light (for the Natural Sciences Tripos 1872, and 
following years), by Mr. Trotter, Trinity College, on 
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, commencing Thurs- 
day, October 19. On Chemistry, by Mr. Main, St. 
John’s College, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at 
12,in St. John’s College Laboratory, commencing Wed- 
nesday, October 18. Attendance on these lectures is 
recognised by the University for the certificate required 
by medical students previous to admission for the first 
examination for the degree of M.B. Instruction in Prac- 
tical Chemistry will also be given. On Paleontology 
(the Protozoa and Ccelenterata), by Mr. Bonney, St. 
John’s College, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 
at 9, commencing Wednesday, October 18. On Geology 
(for the Natural Sciences Tripos, preliminary matter and 
Petrology), by Mr. Bonney, St. John’s College,on Tuesdays 
and Thursdays, at 9, commencing Thursday, October 19. 
A course on Physical Geology will be given in the Lent 
Term, and on Stratigraphical Geology in the Easter Term. 
Papers will be given to questionists every Saturday at 11. 
On Botany, for the Natural Sciences Tripos, by Mr. Hicks, 
Sidney College, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, at 11, 
beginning on Tuesday, October 31. The lectures during 
this term will be on Vegetable Morphology. Mr. Hicks 
will also give examination papers in Botany to candidates 
for the next Natural Sciences Tripos on Mondays, at 
I P.M., beginning October 30. These examinations will 
be free to those who have attended the botanical lectures 
of the last term. On the Elements of Physiology, by the 
Trinity Przlector in Physiology (Dr. M. Foster), Mon- 
days, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, at 11 A.M., commencing 
Monday, October 23. A course of Elementary Practical 
Physiology, on Wednesdays and Thursdays, commencing 
Wednesday, October 25, at 2 P.M. 

AN EXPLOSION (2) ON THE SUN* 
N the 7th of September, between half-past 12 and 
2 P.M., there occurred an outburst of solar energy 
remarkable for its suddenness and violence. Just at noon 
the writer had been examining with the telespectroscope an 
enormous protuberance or hydrogen cloud on the eastern 
limb of the sun. 
It had remained, with very little change since the pre- 
ceding noon, a long, low, quiet-looking cloud, not very 
dense or brilliant, nor in any way remarkable except for 
its size. It was made up mostly of filaments nearly 
horizontal, andfloated above the chromosphere, with its 
lower surface at a height of some 15,000 miles, but was 
connected to it, as is usually the case, by three or four 
vertical columns brighter and more active than the rest. 
Lockyer compares such masses to a banyan grove. In 
length it measured 3’ 45”, and in elevation about 2’ to its 
upper surface, that is, since at the sun’s distance, 1” equals 
450 miles nearly, it was about 100,000 miles long by 
54,000 high. 
At 12.30, when I was called away for a few minutes, 
there was no indication of what was about to happen, 
except that one of the connecting stems at the southern 
extremity of the cloud had grown considerably brighter, 
and was curiously bent to one side ; and near the base of 
another at the northern end a little brilliant lump had 
deqeloped itself, shaped much like a summer thunder- 
ead. 
What was my surprise, then, on returning in less than 
half an hour (at 12.55), to find that in the meantime the 
whole thing had been literally blown to shreds by some 
inconceivable uprush from beneath. In place of the quiet 
cloud I had left, the air, if I may use the expression, was 
filled with flying @ééy7s—a mass of detached vertical fusi- 
form filaments, each from 10” to 30” long by 2” or 3” wide 
* From the Boston Yournal of Chemistry, communicated by the author. 
rs} 
