114 



NA rURE 



{Dec. 2, il 



sidevable excess of income over expenditure in the balance sheet 

 for the year. At first sight it might be supposed that as the 

 Transactions come out at irregular intervals there might have 

 been fewer parts published than usual ; but it will be found on 

 examination that the past year has borne its proper share of 

 printing expenses. The excess is really due to a substantial 

 improvement in the Society's property, under the careful and 

 judicious management of our Treasurer. 



Last year our President informed the Fellows of the munificent 

 offer made to the Society by Sir William Armstrong to give to 

 the Scientific Relief Fund the sum of 6500-'., provided an equal 

 sum were raised by subscription from the Fellows, and, if need 

 be, other friends of science who might not belong to the Society. 

 As the Fellows are aware, a circular was sent round by the 

 Treasurer mentioning Sir William Armstrong's generous ofter, 

 and inviting subscriptions ; and the Treasurer has also written 

 privately to a number of persons. Fellows and others. The 

 sum subscribed or promised in response to this invitation amounts 

 to about 4200/. ; and though the sum thus raised does not 

 amount to what Sir William promised to duplicate if it could he 

 raised, he has most generously not only waived the non-fulfilment 

 of the condition subject to which the former offer was made, but 

 has still further augmented it ; and he now promises not only to 

 duplicate the sum raised in answer to the Treasurer's appeal, Init 

 to give the further sum of 3600'., thus rai-^ing the capital from 

 the present sum of about 8000'. to 20,000.'. He will be ready to pay 

 the whole sum of 7800/. as soon as the subscriptions promised to 

 the Treasurer have been collected. The only condition attached 

 to this princely gift is, that, be>ides meeting the ordinary objects 

 for which the Fund was instituted, the Council should feel them- 

 selves at liberty to apply a portion of the income to defraying the 

 annual subscriptions of Fellows in special cases where such a 

 course mii;ht seem desirable. 



The path of the total eclipse of September 9 of last year, in 

 any place where it fell on land, was so remote from this country 

 that no expedition went out to observe it. It was visible in New 

 Zealand, and in anticipation of it our Eclipse Committee sent 

 out a memorandum to the colony indicating the points of special 

 interest t ) look out for. We have received accounts, drawings, 

 and photographs of the eclipse from Dr. Hector and others. 

 One of the most remarkable features of this p.articular eclipse 

 was the appear.ance of two white and imusu.ally bright promin- 

 ences which attracted general notice, and were compared to 

 electric lamps, and which, situated on opposite sides of the sun, 

 were just over the places of two large spots, one close to the 

 limb, and on the point of disappearing, the other not seen before 

 the eclipse but visible next day, having in the meantime come 

 round the limb. 

 ^ The present year afforded another of those rather rare occa- 

 sions, always of brief duration, which are afforded for the study 

 of solar physics by a total eclipse of the sun. Calculations made 

 long beforehand showed that a total eclipse was to be expected 

 on August 29. The path of the total phase on the earth's 

 surface is always narrow, say loo miles or so across, and on this 

 occasion it swept obliquely acros-; the Atlantic Ocean, cutting 

 the Western Coast of Africa about Benguela, and sweeping 

 across some of the West India Islands to a part of the mainland 

 of South America, where it ended. 



Though there was a long belt of ocean over which the totality 

 would he visible, and where the imposing spectacle of a total 

 eclipse might be witnessed, this was not available for regular 

 scientific observations, which require land on which to fix the 

 instruments. On the mainland of America the total phase 

 would come on so shortly after sunrise that the sun would be too 

 low for good observations, and therefore fie Island of Grenada, 

 which;lay within the belt of totality, was much to be preferred. 

 Of the two available stations, one lay in the British dominions, 

 and was pretty easy of access from England, and accordingly it 

 seemed to be the duty of our country to t.ake a foremost place 

 in the observations, the results of which would be available to 

 the whole scientific world. It was contemplated first to send 

 expeditions to both places — to Benguela as well as Grenad,a. 

 The cost of this would, however, exceed what could be spared 

 from the Government Grant without unduly curtailing what was 

 available for other objects. Accordingly application was made 

 to the Lords of the Treasury for a grant of 1000/. towards the 

 cost of the expeditions. Inquiries were also made as to the 

 probable climate at the two places ; and here I have to express 

 our thanks to the Governor-General of the Windward Islands, 

 who put us in communication with Dr. Wells of Grenada, from 



whom we obtained valuable information regarding the climate of 

 that island, and to the Consul-General for Portugal, who obtained 

 information for us from the Polytechnic Institution at Lisbon as 

 to the amount of sunshine about the end of August at Loanda, 

 which may be taken pretty well as representing Benguela. 



The information we obtained from various sources as to Ben- 

 guela was rather conflicting, but there seemed a pretty general 

 agreement that even if the sun should be shining at the time of 

 the eclipse the sky was likely to be hazy. This would much 

 interfere with good observations, especially as regards the corona ; 

 and as the expense of the expedition to Benguela would be con- 

 siderable, and the success very doubtful, we thought it better to 

 give up that part of the project and confine ourselves to Grenada. 

 Being anxious to trench as little as possible on the national ex- 

 penditure, and finding that a little more could be t.aken from the 

 Government Grant than we had expected, we wrote to the 

 Treasury reducing our application to 500/. , which, with assistance 

 from the Admiralty in the shape of the use of a ship-of-war on 

 the West India station, and supplemented by some money from 

 the Government Grant and from our own Donation Fund, might 

 enable us to meet the expenditure. 



The result was that a sum not exceeding 500/., to supplement 

 what could be spared from the Government Grant, was granted, 

 and the expedition, as the Fellows are aware, has sailed and 

 returned. It was fairly successful, the observations having been 

 prevented by clouds at only one of the stations occupied. 



There has not yet been time to discuss the observations in full, 

 but two points already appear to have come out pretty clearly. 

 One is that the brightness of the corona, which on this occasion 

 was actuilly measured, was much less than had been expected, 

 and less apparently than it had been on former occasions. This 

 seems to show that the brightness is liable to great changes in 

 comparing different years, as we know is the case with the form. 

 The other point touches on the question of the possibility of 

 photographing the corona independently of an ei;lipse. If the 

 photographic brightness of the corona be not overpowered by 

 that of the atmospheric glare immediately around the sun when 

 there is no eclipse, then when the sun is partially eclipsed we 

 might expect to be able to trace the outline of the limb of the 

 moon for some way outside the sun, since the moon would be 

 projected on the background of the corona. The experiment 

 was tried both by Capt. Darwin at Grenada, and by Dr. Gill 

 at the Cape, but in neither case was the limb traceable outside 

 the sun. This throws doubt on, but does not disprove, the 

 validity of the method ; for Dr. Huggins himself has never 

 obtained photographic appearances apparently referable to the 

 corona since the Krakatab eruption. It may be that the finely 

 suspended particles, whether connected with the Krakatab 

 eruption or not, which prodticed those gorgeous sunsets that were 

 so remarkable, have not yet wholly subsided, and cause a con- 

 siderably increased atmospheric glare. It may be that the corona 

 has actually been much less bright than usual for the last few 

 years. 



The present year has been signalised by that remarkable 

 volcanic explosion in New Zealand, of which we have read 

 accounts in the newspapers. We have received from Dr. Hector 

 a series of photographs of the district, taken at no great length 

 of time after the explosion. 



The Krakatao Committee, which was appointed at the sugges- 

 tion of our late President to collect information relative to the 

 great eruption, have now I may say completed their work. The 

 Royal Meteorological Society had appointed a Committee to 

 get together information respecting the remarkable atmospheric 

 phenomena witnessed after the eruption. It was thought desir- 

 able that the two Committees should work in concert, and 

 accordingly our Committee w.as enlarged by the addition of two 

 members of the Royal Meteorological Society, even though they 

 did not happen to be members of the Royal Society, who under- 

 took that share of the work. The information collected under 

 this head is naturally voluminous, since it requires no special 

 training to describe the atmospheric appearances. Our late 

 Fellow, Sir Frederick Evans, undertook the sea-disturbance, and 

 continued to work at it even in an advanced stage of the disease 

 which carried him off. Another fortnight, it was estimated, 

 would have enabled him to complete it. His account was found 

 to have been written in pencil on separate sheets of note-paper, 

 but his successor in the office of Hydrographer, Captain Wharton, 

 our Fellow, was so good as to take up the work ; and partly by 

 the use of materials left by Sir F. Evans, partly by his own in- 

 dependent labour, he has now completed it. The report on air- 



