————— 
May 9, 1912] 
NATURE 
251 
years; the dimensions of the prominences showed a 
similar decrease, while the mean latitude was a little 
higher, and the prominences more evenly distributed, 
in both hemispheres. 
THE EBGPAPSE OF  THESSUN. APRIL 1. 
UR EFEREING to Dr. Marie Stopes’s observation of 
a halo about the eclipsed sun on April 17, Mr. 
Patrick Hepburn writes that Mrs. Hepburn, observ- 
ing from near the central line in France, noticed what 
seemed to be rather of the nature of a corona than a 
halo, although they concluded that it had no connec- 
tion with the true solar corona; it was coloured, with 
the violet outwards. Mr. C. O. Bartrum also dis- 
cusses this phenomenon, and from two friends, one 
of whom saw the eclipse from near Paris, the other 
from Highgate, he gathers that ‘‘the appearance of 
a circle round the sun" seems to have been a corona 
due to diffraction, the colours appearing purer and 
brighter than usual because of the reduction in the 
effective size of the sun. 
On photographs taken at Funchal (Madeira), and 
sent to us by Mr. Michael Grabham, there is obviously 
light cloud producing a ‘‘corona” effect around the 
sun, but the halo so plainly shown on them is palpably 
a photographic halation phenomenon. Another photo- 
graph shows several excellent crescentic images pro- 
jected on to a wood floor through the foliage of 
stephanotis. 
Mr. A. A. Buss writes that the time of his promin- 
ence observations (Nature, April 25, p. 193) was from 
8.0 to 8.30 a.m. The positions he gave agree very 
well with prominences photographed by M. Des- 
landres (NaTURE, May 2, p. 221), although Mr. Buss | 
did not note the large prominences in 47° N. lat. (E.) 
and 47° S. lat. (W.) as being especially conspicuous ; 
the position angles would be about 17° and 197° 
respectively. But Mr. Buss observed visually in He 
radiation, while M. Deslandres used the K (calcium) 
radiation for his spectroheliograms; this and _ the 
difference in time would readily explain the apparent 
changes, especially as the fact that considerable pro- 
minence activity occurred on the day of the eclipse is 
confirmed by both observers. Mr. Buss states that 
prominences were seen near p.a. 117° from April 14 
to 29, thus forming a chain extending more than 
half-way round the sun; the western extremity of the 
chain was detected at the W. limb towards the end 
of the month. Possibly the Ha spectroheliograms 
taken during this period will show magnificent ‘‘ fila- 
ments’ in the position indicated. Mr. Buss pictures 
the grandeur of such phenomena could they be spectro- 
scopically observed from a position in space on the 
sun’s axis prolonged. 
Mr. Worthington, who, with Mr. Slater, was 
operating near Ovar, secured a photograph of the 
bright chromospheric arcs, which shows a_ large 
number of lines between A3100 and D. Only the 
lower halves of the chromospheric circles are shown, 
the upper halves being lost in continuous spectrum, 
probably produced by portions of the sun which re- 
mained uncovered at the moment of exposure. The 
original negative is deposited at the Royal Astro- 
nomical Society’s rooms, as were those secured at 
Vavau last year, where it may be inspected by anyone 
interested in the matter. 
Several papers dealing with the eclipse appear in 
the Comptes rendus for April 29 (No. 18). MM. 
Carimey, Raveau, and Stablo describe bands of dark- 
ness which they observed from near the central line 
on the plateau de la Beauce. Comte de la Baume- 
Pluvinel was at St. Germain-en-Laye, and took a 
large number of kinematograph pictures of the eclipse, 
NO. 2219, VOL. 89] 
| 
with a chronometer alongside, at the rate of 13 or 14 
per second. A study of these gives the time of 
central eclipse at 12h. 1om. 4’5s.+0'2s., but this may 
be a little modified if the lunar depressions on oppo- 
site sides were not equally deep; for last contact the 
time determined was rh. 32m. 7s. Four plates taken 
with an objective of 15 metres focal length show a 
slight aureole attributable to the corona, but no details 
of coronal structure. A three-prism spectroscope, with 
a wide slit, was directed to part of the chromosphere 
between two Baily’s beads in p.a. about 130°. A 
considerable number of monochromatic images of the 
chromosphere were shown between A486 and A380, 
about forty appearing between H and K. At Clayes 
(long. 0° 21’ 9/8” west, lat., 48° 49’ 13” N.), MM. R. 
Jouast and P. de la Gorce determined the variations 
of the intensity of the light on a horizontal plane 
during the eclipse. There was a steady decrease from 
50,000 units at roh. 55m. 155s. to 16 units at 12h. 
gm. 55°5s-, then a more rapid increase to 50,000 units 
at 12h. 50m. 4o0s. Kinematograph pictures were 
oan by MM. Vlés and J. Carvallo at Cacabelos, in 
pain. 
MATTER AND MIND. 
CIR GEORGE REID is known to be a versatile 
thinker, and he shows himself to be also a philo- 
sopher in an address on ‘“‘The World of Matter and 
the World of Mind” delivered by him recently before 
the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. We live 
on a single globe among millions of similar. bodies, 
and we have no direct evidence of life elsewhere in 
space. Yet, “If living things exist only on this 
globe, living things are the loneliest of all the objects 
which the telescope can reach, or the microscope 
reveal, or the mind of man conceive. Man would be 
the loneliest of all, for he stands alone even among 
the living things of his own planet.’” Moreover, the 
achievements of man in the few thousand years of 
historic time are so brilliant in comparison with what 
was accomplished in the million years or so of geo- 
logical man that Sir George Reid considers the argu- 
ment derived from the remains of a physical struc- 
ture resembling our own furnishes no conclusive 
proof that we are in body and soul the lineal 
descendants of fossilised ancestors. The principle of 
continuity breaks down when the evolution of mind 
is considered; if a Plato, Newton, or Darwin can be 
developed from a cave-dweller, ‘‘is not such an evolu- 
tion a greater tax on human faith than the marvels 
of a direct creation can be?” Man, the intelligent 
centre of progressive life, is conscious of directive 
control: the will is merely the executive officer of 
the mind, and behind it there must be ‘some sort 
of pilotage.”’ 
This position is not new, and has been occu- 
pied by many philosophers from Aristotle to 
Bergson without any completely satisfactory view 
being obtained from it. The rise and progress of 
mental life, the emergence of volition, or the will 
to decide between reason and desire, and the idea 
of will behind phenomena, find no clear place in the 
naturalistic scheme of human evolution. Matter— 
whether organic or inorganic—is yielding to the 
importunate efforts of scientific investigators, but 
mind as a subject of serious study is given little 
attention even at the universities. Sir George Reid 
pleads for greater encouragement to the work of 
psychologists in these seats of learning, and his 
address should do something to save the Cinderella 
among the sciences from her present condition of 
neglect. 
