August 24, 1905] 



NA TURE 



399 



should be Inverury, and the next page has a cruel 

 mutilation of Le Gros Guignon, while the reference 

 to Archaeological Journal on the page before should 

 be to the York volume (1848). 



Following an excellent example, Mr. Mortimer 

 furnishes relic-tables with all necessary details at the 

 end of the volume, together with a copious index. 

 Comparison with Canon Greenwell's table shows a 

 very large proportion of primary interments, there 

 being in one case as many as seventeen, to three 

 secondary; but in a matter of this kind different 

 conclusions might be drawn from the same data. 

 .Altogether the work is most welcome as a fund of 

 material for more general treatment, and should 

 encourage the study and publication of prehistoric 

 finds in England. 



B 



THE FORTHCOMING TOTAL SOLAR 

 ECLIPSE. 



V the time that N.vruRE appears next week, the 

 total solar eclipse of .August 30 will have become 

 an event of the past, and we hope then to be in a 

 position to announce that the careful preparations, 

 which have occupied the minds of astronomers for so 

 many months past, have been crowned with success. 



Since the appearance of Dr. Lockyer's article con- 

 cerning the eclipse, in our issue of February 23, 

 several important modifications in the proposed 

 arrangements have been made, but most of the eclipse 

 observers are now at their stations erecting or adjust- 

 ing their instruments for the final scene on Wednes- 

 day next. How much depends on the nicety of these 

 adjustments can only be understood by those in- 

 timately concerned ; but when it is recalled that since 

 the general introduction of photographic methods 

 into eclipse work the sun has only been eclipsed for 

 about half an hour, that the duration of totality in the 

 coming event exceeds 35 minutes, and that no favour- 

 able opportunity will occur again until 1912, when 

 totality will only last for about 60 seconds, some idea 

 may be obtained of the anxiety of those observers 

 who are fortunate enough to take an active part in 

 next Wednesdav's observations. 



Subjoined to this article is a letter from Dr. 

 W. J. S. Lockyer describing the preliminary oper- 

 ations of the eclipse expedition of the Solar Physics 

 Obscrvatorv, under the personal direction of Sir 

 Norman Lockyer, K.C.B. When all arrangements 

 for this expedition were nearly completed, but before 

 Sir Norman Lockyer left England, it was decided 

 hv the French Government, in quite a friendly spirit, 

 that the presence of a foreign man-of-war in Philippe- 

 \ille harbour was not desirable at the present time ; 

 therefore arrangements were made with the Spanish 

 authorities, who rendered such valuable help to the 

 similar expedition in igoo, for the party to go to 

 Palma. Some of the work contemplated at Palma 

 is described by Dr. Lockyer jn his letter. 



Some novel observations will be made by other 

 observers. In a recent communication to the 

 British .Astronomical .Association Mr. C. E. Stromeyer 

 pointed out that geodes)' might be assisted by an 

 accurate determination of the path of totality. 

 This path has been computed on the, assumption 

 that the earth has a certain form, and if the 

 computed values are found to be incorrect, the 

 errors in the assumption might be discovered. 

 Another valuable suggestion was made in a letter 

 from Dr. Johnstone Stoney which appeared in these 

 columns on July 13, wherein the writer pointed out 

 that the planet Mercury will be very near to a line 

 joining the earth and the sun, and will therefore 

 present a very thin crescent to the observer's view. 



NO. 1869, VOL. 72] 



If .Mercury has an atmosphere, the horns of the 

 crescent should appear prolonged by atmospheric re- 

 fraction, and a careful observer, suitably equipped, 

 should be able to detect the prolongation, and possibly 

 to observe the spectrum of the tips. 



M. Touchet suggests that the moon might be 

 observed, both before the first and after the fourth 

 contacts, projected on the brighter portions of the 

 lower corona, by an observer employing a suitable 

 dark glass with a small telescope. 



In a brochure recently received from Sefior Horacio 

 Bentabol, of Madrid, the author makes a number of 

 suggestions to eclipse observers by which the exist- 

 ence of a lunar atmosphere might be detected. 

 .Among other matters he suggests that delicate 

 thermometric observations made for some hours before 

 and after the eclipse might exhibit a heat-absorption 

 effect due to the interposition of the lunar atmo- 

 sphere, between the sun and the observer, before the 

 actual body of the moon was interposed. Solar radi- 

 ation observ-ations might also exhibit the same effect. 

 Photometric observations of the illumination of the 

 sky might show an analogous absorption of light, 

 due to the lunar atmosphere. Exact determinations 

 of the solar diameter would, if the moon possesses 

 an atmosphere, probably show the results of the re- 

 fraction due to that atmosphere. The apparent 

 hourlv movement of the sun should become modified, 

 as the lunar atmosphere is interposed, for the same 

 reason. Many other points whereby the existence of 

 such an atmosphere might be tested are given by 

 Seiior Bentabol. 



.As recently mentioned in these columns, French 

 astronomy will be well represented at the various 

 stations, whilst American astronomers have journeyed 

 to a number of widelv separated stations. Three 

 expeditions have been sent from the Lick Observatory 

 to Labrador, Spain, and Egypt respectively. _ At 

 each station a search is to be made for an intra- 

 Mercurial planet, and large-scale coronagraphs of 

 exactlv similar construction are to be employed. 

 Should any actual movements take place in the corona 

 during the two and a half hours which elapse between 

 totalitv at Labrador and at .Assouan, the photographs 

 obtained at these respective stations should show it. 



The Canadian Government has dispatched an 

 expedition to Labrador, and has officially invited 

 Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Maunder to accompany the 

 same. Mrs. Maunder will employ a coronagraph 

 exactly similar to that which Prof. Turner is using 

 in Egypt. 



The details concerning the regions crossed by the 

 eclipse track, and the times of totality, &c.,_have 

 already been given in many places, but the subjoined 

 table giving the times and magnitude of the greatest 

 phase in these islands may be of interest : — 



Eclips'? befiins Greatest eclipse Eclipse ends Mn?. 



A. h. m. d. h. m. ' ' - 



Greenwich 29 23 49 ... 30 I 4 

 Ertin^'urgh 29 23 44 ■■ 3° o .'55 

 Dublin ... 29 23 39 ... 30 o 53 



In the above table, which is taken from the Com- 

 panion to the Observatory, the times are Greenwich 

 Mean Time, which is reckoned from the previous 

 mean noon, and the magnitude is given with the 

 sun's whole diameter as unity. 



30 2 11; ... 0-786 

 30 2 4 ... 0724 

 30 2 5 ... 0799 



The Solar Physics Observatory Eclipse Expedition. 

 Palma, August 18. 

 I We have now been at Palma a week to-day, and 

 I are all thoroughly settled down, not only at the 

 I very excellent hotel in which we are located, but at 

 i the eclipse camp, which lies about a mile towards 

 I the north-west. We are a large party. There are 



