298 TRANSLATIONS AND SELECTED ARTICLES. 
Of these, the only one that deserves particular mention was a lunar 
halo observed on the 16th of June, 1861. It consisted of arcs of 
three circles. The are of the circle round the moon had a paraselene 
mear one of its extremities; at the apex of this circle was a tangent 
circle, apparently of the same radius as the first one; and through 
the centre of the tangent circle was a third, parallel to the last men- 
tioned, but of a greater radius. The sky at the time was clear, with 
the exception of light stratus clouds, extending from the S.W. to the 
N. horizon, by which the lower portion of the first mentioned circle 
was obscured. 
NOTICES SCIENTIFIQUES. 
PAR. M. ARAGO. 
Notice sur les observations qui ont fait connaitre la constitution 
physique du Soleil et celles de diverses étoiles. samen des zonjec- 
tures des anciens philosophes et des données positives des astronomes 
modernes, sur la place que doit prendre le Soleil parmi le nombre 
prodigieux d’ étoiles dont le firmament est parsemé. 
(Lu dans la séance publique des cing Académies, le 25 Octobre, 1851.) 
[This memoir is an excellent example of the popular and yet strictly scientific 
résumes which we owe to the pen of the illustrious Arago, and is also a good 
illustration of the charm of his peculiar style. Although recent researches have 
reversed some of his conclusions, as we have indicated in a few notes, the 
memoir itself will always be a classic in the history of science, as a thorough 
reaction of the state of knowledge at the time it was written. Ep.] 
Towards the middle of the month of July last, astronomers be- 
longing to the principal observatories in Europe, betook themselves to 
Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Russia, and fixed their stations in 
places where the solar eclipse of the 28th of that month would be 
total. They hoped that this phenomenon, studied with powerful 
instruments, would lead to plausible explanations of sundry appear- 
ances noticed in previous eclipses, on which nobody had dared to 
pronounce in a decisive manner. ‘‘ What!” cried some ill-tempered 
spirits (little acquainted, I must suppose, with the history of astro- 
nomy); ‘‘ What! can the science, which is called the most perfect of 
all, find still some problems to solve, even with respect to the body 
