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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1870 
THE ECLIPSE EXPEDITION 
EFORE this reaches the hands of our readers, 
both sections of the English Government Eclipse 
Expedition will be on their way, the one to Spain and 
Algiers, the other to Sicily. The articlein our last number 

will have given a general idea of the work to be done, and | 
we think it willbe admitted that seldom has so much work | 
been laid out to be accomplished in a brief two minutes. | 
To choose the right men for so important an investigation 
in a scientific point of view has been no easy task; but | 
the list may now be looked on with satisfaction as com- 
prising men of known ability, and of tried powers of 
observation in the various departments of Science con- 
cerned. Astronomy, chemistry, spectroscopy, photo- 
graphy, pure physics, are all worthily represented ; and 
from our Paris intelligence this week it will be seen that 
there is good hope of M. Janssen being able to leave 
Paris to join in the Expedition. 

We can now only wish for both parties that the elements _ 
will be propitious for the work they have undertaken. The | 
time during which the observations can be made is so short 
that the most careful arrangements will be necessary to | 
utilise the observing powers of every member of the party. 
Each will have his work definitely laid out for him. On the 
performance of the assigned duty without regard to other 
phenomena which come within the sphere of another 
man’s work, will much of the success of the Expedition 
depend. 
But scarcely less important than the arrangements at 
the moment of the eclipse, have been those of the 
Organising Committee, which had the charge of the pre- 
parations for the Expedition. The unfortunate delay which 
teok place in ascertaining the intentions of the Govern- 
ment, threw on this Committee, after that intention was 
known, an amount of work compressed into the space of 
a few weeks, which ought to have extended over as many 
months. It was only in the first week in November that 
a definite assurance was received that an application for 
money and ships for the purposes of the expedition would 
be likely to be successful. The work to be accomplished 
by the Committee between that time and the first week in | 
Dec2mber, was such as those experienced in such matters 
might well shrink from ; but, thanks to one or two indivi- 
duals who had the advance of science at heart before any- 
thing else, the work has been done, and, what is more, has 
been well done. To Prof. Stokes in particular the thanks of 
the scientific world are due, for the untiring assiduity with 
which he has laboured to bring the affair to a successful 
issue. 
If there is one cause for regret in the programme of 
arrangements, it is the absence of any one name among 
the observers who are going out, who can be said to 
directly represent the Government. It is a Government 
expedition, undertaken with the assistance of public 
money and ships belonging to the nation; and it would 
have been right and fitting to have seen at the head of it 
one of the Government astronomers, rather than that all 
the labour of the organisation and all the credit of the 
observations, should they be successful, should fall to 
VORe IIT: 
the lot of private persons. This expedition will, indeed, 
form a conclusive argument against those who have held 
that if Government hold out a helping hand to Science, this 
| will act as a bar to all private enterpsise. Had the Govern- 
ment held back altogether from offering their assistance, 
no English expedition would have been organised ; indi- 
vidual astronomers who felt sufficient enthusiasm to give 
up their time, and spend their money in furthering the ends 
of Science, would have been compelled to avail themselves 
of the generous and munificent offers of assistance from 
the American Government. Need we say in what light this 
would have been regarded by contemporary science and 
by future historians? Goverament having once stepped 
forward, and assumed its rightful position, a stimulus was 
thereby given to private enterprise ; every individual con- 
cerned felt that not only the interests of Science, but the 
honour of his country was at stake, in doing his part to- 
wards ensuring a successful result ; and probably never 
has an expedition been better organised, and started 
under happier auspices, notwithstanding what has been 
said to the contrary in one of the daily papers, which has 
evidently been misled by those who have a purpose to 
serve in abusing the Committee. 
Now that the Government has put its hand to the work, 
we are bound to say it has done so in no grudging spirit. 
More has already been done than the promoters of the 
Expedition were at first given to expect. Not only has the 
Urgent been placed at their disposal, to carry the Spanish 
and Algerian party from Portsmouth to their destinz ton, 
but a despatch-boat, the Psyche, is told off for the Sicilian 
expedition. All the foreign Governments concerned ap- 
pear determined to emulate this good will; the arrange- 
ments of that of Spain we have already published. There 
is reason to hope that the necessary apparatus will pass 
through every custom-house, duty free, without the slightest 
impediment. It is hoped that the Sicily party may com- 
bine with that sent by the American Government, and 
may do their work and publish their results in concert. 
Our readers need hardly be reminded of the special 
object which it is hoped will be accomplished by the pre- 
sent expedition : the settling for ever of the vexed ques- 
tions concerning the luminous appearance visible in total 
eclipses, known as the Cocona, both as to its actual 
locality and its constitution, which still have to be settled, 
notwithstanding some hard writing to the contrary. In 
all these observations the utmost nicety of observation 
will be required, and some ingenious and novel contriv- 
ances will be employed for the determination. 
We shall take the earliest opportunity of placing the 
results before our readers. We have taken means to have 
' areport sent to us by telegraph from every station, and 
| 29th inst. 
shall hope to be able to summarise them in our issue of the 
These early reports will be the more valuable, 
as up to the present time we have no official account of 
the observations taken in Spain during the total cclipse of 
1860. With the exception of Mr. Warren De La Rue’s 
observations, published by hins-lf, no results of that 
expedition have yet been made known to the public. 
We have now only to wish the Eclipse Fxpedition, and 
every member of it, a pleasant and prosperous voyage, and 
a happy rcturn to England with ile consciousness of 
having contributed somethirg to the progre:s of scientific 
investigation. B. 
G 
