274 
NATURE 
[ ¥uly 22, 1886 
moon and 12’ of arc around it at the moment of totality 
by a disk of wood, carefully shielding his eyes before 
totality. Prof. Langley observed at a very consider- 
able elevation. It is therefore quite easy to understand 
why this ring has not been seen or photographed at maxi- 
mum. At maximum no precautions have been taken to 
shield the eye; no observations have been made at a 
considerable elevation ; while the fact that the ring, if it 
exists, consists of cool material, fully explains how it is 
that the photographic plates have disregarded it. 
I would propose, therefore, that the repetition of Prof. 
Newcomb’s observations of 1878 be made an important 
part in the arrangements of the eclipse for this year. A 
slight alteration in the method will be necessary, as the 
ring will be near the vertex and the lowest point of the 
eclipsed sun. 
(3) Another point of the highest importance at the pre- 
sent moment has relation to the existence of carbon. Until 
Tacchini’s observations of 1883, the only trace of carbon 
in the solar spectrum consisted of ultra-violet flutings. He 
observed other flutings in the green near the streamers in 
the eclipse referred to. 
Duner’s recent work puts it beyond all doubt that stars 
of Class ITI. é havetheir visible absorption produced chiefly 
by carbon vapour. 
On any theory of evolution, therefore, we must expect 
the sun’s atmosphere to be composed to a large extent of 
carbon at some time or other ; so that the highest interest 
attaches to this question in connection with the height in 
the atmosphere at which the evidence of carbon is ob- 
served. The existence of the ultra-violet flutings among 
the Fraunhofer lines tells nothing absolute about this 
height, although I inferred, at the time I made the 
announcement, that it existed at some height in the coronal 
atmosphere. 
These three points, then, are those to which I attach 
special importance at the present time. 
We next come to photographs of the corona. I believe, 
that, with our present knowledge, the chief thing we have 
to seek in such photographs is not merely the streamers 
and their outlines, which we are sure to get anyway, but 
images on a larger scale; so that in a series of short ex- 
posures we may endeavour to get some records which will 
eventually help us in determining the directions of the 
lower currents. At present we do not know absolutely 
whether these flow to or from the poles. My own impres- 
sion is that the panaches at the poles indicate an upper 
outflow. 
In coming to the photo-spectroscopic observations, I am 
of opinion, that of the two attacks which I first suggested 
for the eclipse of 1875, and which have also been used in 
the last two eclipses of 1882 and 1883, one of them should 
be discarded, and the whole effort concentrated on the 
other. 
We have learned very much from the use of the pris- 
matic camera,—one of the instruments referred to; but 
the results obtained by it are not of sufficient accuracy to 
enable them to be fully utilised. On the other hand, 
though the slit spectroscope failed in 1875, it succeeded 
with a brighter corona and more rapid plates in 1882 ; 
and, with a proper reference spectrum, every iota of the 
facts recorded can be at once utilised for laboratory work 
and subsequent discussion. 
On these grounds, then, I would suggest that slit spec- 
troscopes alone be used for photographic registration. I 
think falling plates should be used, and that the work 
should begin ten minutes before totality, and continue till 
ten minutes after; provided the slit be tangential, or 
nearly so, to the limb. 
I may state that arrangements have been made here to 
take such a series of photographs on the uneclipsed sun ; 
and, with the improved apparatus, I am greatly in hopes 
that we may get something worth having. 
This paper was communicated to the Eclipse Com- 
mittee, and formed in part the basis for the plan of opera- 
tions on this occasion, which, as approved by the Com- 
mittee, are as follows :— 
Coronagraph before and after totality. } 
Camera and prismatic camera during - Capt. Darwin 
totality act SoBe aan PBC a 
Camera and slit spectroscopes ... ... 
Integrated intensity of corona oie 
Camera and slit spectroscopes 
Capt. Abney 
Dr. Schuster 
Be ¥ 3 Mr. Maunder 
Observations of chromosphere before 
and after totality, and search for ¢ Rev. S. J. Perry 
carbon bands during totality ... ... 
Observations of chromosphere before ) 
and after totality, and direction of > Mr. Turner 
solar currents during totality ... ... \ 
Images of corona on large and small ) 
scale (2 inches and j inch) with ( yp. Lockyer 
photoheliograph and a 6-inch object- 
glass by Henry ... < : \ 
Prof. Thorpe replaces Capt. Abney in the above list, 
and Prof. Tacchini joins the expedition at the invitation 
of the Royal Society. 
NOTES 
WE regret to learn of the death of Dr. Abich, the eminent 
Russian geologist. 
Mr. DAviID STEPHENSON, of Edinburgh, the well-known 
civil engineer, died at North Berwick on Saturday last. He 
was born in 1815, and was a son of Mr. Robert Stephenson, the 
celebrated engineer of the Bell Rock and other lighthouses. His 
abilities in his profession were soon recognised. He was ap- 
pointed at an early age engineer to the Lighthouse Board, and 
while occupying that position he constructed a number of im- 
portant lighthouses. In the course of his career he held the office 
of consulting engineer to the Highland and Agricultural Society 
and to the Convention of the Royal Burghs, as also engineer 
to the Board of Fisheries and the Clyde Lighthouse Trust. Mr. 
Stephenson was a voluminous writer ; his more important works 
included ‘‘ A Sketch of Civil Engineering in North America,” 
‘The Application of Modern Hydrometry to the Practice of 
Civil Engineering,” ‘‘ Reclamation and Production of Agricul- 
tural Land,” and “ Principles and Practice of Canal and River 
Engineering.” He was an occasional contributor to the columns 
of NATURE. 
THE death is announced of Mr. Charles Mano, seven days 
after leaving Colon for France, at the age of fifty-five. M. Mano 
had made various journeys in S,anish America for scientific 
purposes. In Mexico he discovered several ancient cities which 
had never before been seen by any European. He was the 
scientific Commissioner of the Governments of Colombia and of 
Guatemala. 
THE arrangements for the Brighton meeting of the British 
Medical Association on the roth, 11th, r2th, and 13th proximo 
are rapidly approaching completion. In the section of pathology, 
the new science of bacteriology will receive a good deal of atten- 
tion, and microscopic photographs of these mysterious organisms 
will be shown by Dr. Heneage Gibbes and Dr. Crookshank, 
while the latter will also exhibit the various organisms growing 
in gelatine, &c. 
WE learn from the Sidereal Messenger for July that the con- 
tract for mounting the 36-inch objective has been awarded by 
the Lick trustees to Warner and Swasey, of Cleveland, O., for 
42,000 dols. 
of the tube 42 inches. Provisions are made by which it will be 
possible for the observer at the eye-end of the telescope to 
command all the possible motions, and these same motions can 
also be controlled by an observer stationed on a small balcony 
The telescope is to be 57 feet long ; the diameter- 
e. © eppeorwwerewn— 
