March 24, 1870] 
NAT ORE 
543 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Royal Society, March 10.—The following paper was read : 
**On some elementary principles in animal mechanics. No. 3— 
On the muscular forces employed in parturition,” by the Rey. 
S. Haughton. 
March 17.—Papers were readas follows :—‘‘ On the law which 
regulates the relative magnitude of the areas of the four orifices 
of the heart,” by D. H. Davies ; and ‘‘On the estimation of 
ammonia in atmospheric air,” by Mr. H. T. Brown. The 
process recommended is by the absorption of the ammonia 
by extremely dilute sulphuric acid, and the results obtained 
are said to be far more concordant than those procured by 
other means. 
The Royal Astronomical Society, March 11.—Mr. W. 
Lassell, president, in the chair. Sixty-three presents were 
announced as having been received since the third meeting, and 
the thanks of the society were voted to their respective donors. 
A communication from Mr, Marsh was then read, in which that 
observer records the position-angles and apparent distances of 
the satellites of Uranus. It was ordered that this paper be 
printed forthwith.—The next paper was by Lieut. Herschel. In 
a letter to his brother, Prof. Alexander Herschel, the writer 
remarked on certain singular objects seen to traverse the sun’s 
disc on October 17th and 18th, 1869. He was about to apply 
his spectroscope to the observation of a solar prominence when 
his attention was attracted to certain shadows traversing the disc 
of the sun, which became bright streaks when they had passed 
beyond it. At first he thought these appearances were due to 
sparks in the tube of the telescope, but the phenomenon lasted 
too long for this explanation to be available. He next thought 
that perhaps a system of meteors might be in transit, and pre- 
pared to subject the phenomenon to careful scrutiny. The 
equatorial was set in motion, the sun’s disc being projected on a 
screen, -Theshadows were seen persistently traversing the solar 
disc, but at different velocities, the larger ones travelling most 
swiftly. There appeared to betwo streams. He noticed that 
when the sun was in focus the objects were indistinct, and that 
they appeared very distinctly when he focussed on a distant 
cloud. At length, while he was attentively scrutinising the 
phenomenon he saw onejof the objects come suddenly to a stand- 
still, and then whisk off in a different direction; and then he 
perceived that the phenomenon he had been examining with 
such anxious care was not in reality an astronomical pheno- 
menon at all, but consisted merely of a flight of locusts. He 
considered, however, that not only was the existence of so enor- 
mous aswarm of locusts as the duration of the stream indicated, 
an interesting fact in itself, but that we might findjin the occurrence 
the explanation of many statements which had been made respect- 
ing meteors supposed to have transited the sun, and also of some 
peculiarities noticed by astronomers in America during the total 
eclipse of last year. Mr. Stone said that it was important when 
appearances of this sort were noticed that the observer should 
examine, as Lieut. Herschel had done, whether the objects seen 
in transit required the same focus as the sun. This was the best 
way of determining whether the objects were terrestrial or not. 
—Capt. Noble communicated three short papers to the society. 
The first had reference to occultations of stars by the moon, The 
second referred to the visibility of Venus near her inferior con- 
junction. He could detect only an are of light less than a semi- 
circle, and saw the body of the planet projected on the sky 
beyond, the planet appearing sensibly darker than the sky. On 
March the 3rd he saw the Zodiacal Light for the first time, He 
was struck by the fact that instead of appearing nearly coinci- 
dent with the ecliptic, the light seemed inclined at an angle of 
about twenty degrees to that circle. It seemed, in fact, almost 
perpendicular to the horizon.—Mr. Browning exhibited some 
more drawings of Jupiter, remarking on the changes of form and 
colour which the belts on the planet had exhibited during the 
past few months. The president inquired whether a picture by 
Mr, Browning, in which the equatorial belt appeared twice as 
wide as usual, was not slightly exaggerated; but Mr. Browning 
remarked that it presented the planet exactly as he had seen it.— 
Mr. Procter then reada paper entitled ‘‘ Notes on the Corona and 
the Zodiacal Light, with suggestions respecting the modes of 
observation to be applied to the Eclipse of next December.” He 
remarked that if we have in reality sufficient evidence to 
determine whether the corona is or not a solar appendage, 
it would be a misfortune, and in a sense discreditable, to science, 
were the short time at the disposal of observers wasted in 
futile observations directed to settle a point determinable before- 
hand. He then expressed his conviction that the corona 
cannot be a terrestrial phenomenon. He pointed out that the 
very blackness of the moon as compared with the corona showed 
that the coronal light is behind the moon. The moon is, in fact, 
projected on the corona as a background, he urged, whereas the 
theory that the light is due to atmospheric glare requires that 
the corona should be a foreground. But passing over this argu- 
ment, which is liable to the fatal objection of being too simple, 
he proceeded to inquire whether air which lies between the 
observer and the corona is in reality illuminated. He showed 
that all round the sun, for a distance of many degrees, there 
should be perfect darkness if the illumination of the atmosphere 
by direct solar light were in question. As to the atmospheric 
glare due to the chromosphere and prominences, he argued that 
it must be relatively small because it could bear no higher pro- 
portion to the actual light of the chromosphere, than ordinary 
atmospheric glare bears to actual sunlight, and we know this 
proportion is very small indeed. Again, as to light reflected 
from the atmosphere outside the shadow-cone, or from the sur- 
face of the earth, he urged that that also must be small, since not 
any part of the atmosphere above the observer’s horizon was 
illuminated by more than a half-sun, while all the parts near the 
shadow-cone were in nearly total shadow. But a fatal objection 
to the view that the corona could be due to either the glare from 
the prominences or to light reflected from the surrounding air 
consisted in the fact that such glare ought to cover the moon’s 
disc. He then referred to a number of observations confirming 
the view that the coronal light is not terrestrial ; as the appear- 
ance of glare during partial eclipses, this glare always trending 
onthe moon’s disc ; the relatively greater darkness of the central 
part of the moon’s disc in annular eclipses; the visibility of that part 
of the moon’s dise which lies beyond the sun in partial eclipses, the 
limb being seen dark on the background of the sky ; the visibility 
of the corona in partial eclipses, even its most distinctive 
peculiarities having been recognised when the sun’s disc is not 
wholly covered; and several other phenomena. He then ad- 
duced evidences to show that a solar appendage which one 
would expect to appear during total eclipses, actually does 
exist. First the Zodiacal Light shows that the sun is surrounded 
by such an appendage. Dr, Balfour Stewart’s theory of this 
object, however physically sound, was opposed, he urged, by 
too many astronomical objections to be accepted for a moment : 
an object which exhibits no appreciable parallax, which rises 
and sets as the celestial objects do, and maintains a position in 
the heavens having a nearly constant relation to the ecliptic, 
cannot by any possibility be due to any peculiarity of the earth’s 
atmosphere. Then Leverrier has shown that the motion of 
Mercury’s perihelion indicates the presence of a ring of bodies in 
the sun’s neighbourhood; and Mr. Baxendell has drawn a 
similar conclusion from the meteorological records of well- 
known observatories. Lastly, judging of the meteor systems 
according to the laws of probability, we have every reason 
to belieye that for each one our earth encounters 
there must be millions whose perihelia lie within the earth’s 
orbit. Since the earth encounters fifty-six such systems, it 
will be seen how enormous must be the total number. 
These should be visible during total eclipses, and since they 
would shine in part by reflected light, and in part through 
their intrinsic light (for those which come as near the sun as 
some comets haye been observed to do, must be melted or 
even vaporised by the sun’s heat) we have an explanation of 
the contradictory accounts given by those who have applied 
the polariscope and the spectroscope to the solar corona. 
Mr. Stone remarked that there ought to be three sets of 
observations made with the polariscope next December, 
since if there were but two the result would probably be 
contradictory, as was the case with regard to the observations 
made in India in 1868, and in America last year. Different 
parts of the corona ought also to be examined. : 
Zoological Society, March 10.—John Gould, F.R.S., V.P., 
inthe chair. The secretary spoke of the additions to the society’s 
menagerie during the month of February, amongst which were 
particularly noticed a collared fruit-bat (Cyzonycteris collaris), 
born in the society’s monkey-house on the 25th inst., being the 
first instance on record of a birth amongst these animals in capti- 
vity, and a kangaroo, believed to belong to a new species, for 
which the name AZacropus erubescens was proposed. —Prof. Flower 
exhibited a drawing of a Cetacean animal lately captured in a 
