76 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 289. 



and the proper composition of the tobacco leaf 

 while ripening. Upon this composition de- 

 pends the development of a desirable aroma in 

 the sweating process. Climate and weather 

 are here such potent factors that human art 

 can accomplish directly but little. Too cool 

 and rainy weather may favor, for example, the 

 production of fatty matter, which certainly 

 exerts an unfavorable effect upon the aroma in 

 smoking. There may be produced, however, 

 still other products which are unfavorable to 

 the aroma. Too dry weather may also inter- 

 fere with the proper composition of the ripen- 

 ing tobacco leaves. By crossing and selection, 

 however, varieties of tobacco may possibly be 

 produced that even under favorable climatic 

 conditions will not form much of the com- 

 pounds which injure the aroma. In regard to 

 the selection of the seed, it may be mentioned 

 that even now some farmers go so far as to im- 

 port their seed directly from Cuba each year." 

 Charles E. Bessey. 

 The Univeesity of Nebeaska. 



THE BECENT SOLAS ECLIPSE. 

 A JOINT meeting of the Royal Societj' and the 

 Royal Astronomical Society was held on June 

 27th to hear preliminary reports from several 

 expeditious that went out to observe the recent 

 eclipse of the sun. Lord Lister, the president 

 of the Royal Society, was in the chair, and with 

 him was Professor G. H. Darwin, president of 

 the Royal Astronomical Society. According to 

 the report in the London Times, Mr. Christie, 

 the astronomer royal, first presented an ac- 

 count of the observations made by himself and 

 Mr. Dyson at Ovar, in Portugal. There to- 

 tality lasted 84J seconds, and though the sky 

 was rather hazy he secured some good pho- 

 tographs. The plates employed were 15 inches 

 square, and, owing to their size, were rather 

 awkward to handle ; hence he was only able to 

 expose five during totality. The exposures 

 ranged from one and one-half to fifteen seconds. 

 The resulting pictures were exhibited. In sev- 

 eral of them the prominences and inner struc- 

 ture of the corona were well shown, while in 

 others considerable extensions of the corona 

 were visible. Mr. Christie also showed some of 

 the pictures taken by Mr. Dyson with a double 



camera ; in one of these at least greater coronal 

 extensions could be traced than were visible to 

 the eye. As to the corona, it seemed very dis- 

 tinctly inferior in brightness, structure and rays 

 to the one seen in the Indian eclipse, appear- 

 ing, indeed, quite a different object. 



Sir Norman Lockyer next described the ob- 

 servations made by the Solar Physics Observa- 

 tory Expedition and the officers and men of 

 H. M. S. Theseus at Santa Pola. This place, 

 which lay very near the central line of the 

 eclipse, was selected because it appeared likely 

 to meet the requirements of a man-of war, and 

 without the assistance of a man-of-war the 

 manipulation of long focus prismatic cameras in 

 a strange country was impracticable. Two of 

 these instruments were used, one of which was 

 a new one with a Taylor triple lense of 6-in. 

 aperture and 20-ft. focal length. Out of the 

 great wealth of photographs at his command 

 Sir Norman Lockyer only exhibited a few to 

 give a general idea of his results. Four coron- 

 ographs were employed. The corona appeared 

 to him a repetition of the one seen in 1878 and 

 different from that of 1871 ; in several respects 

 he obtained confirmation of the differences be- 

 tween the coronas at periods of sunspot maxima 

 and minima. 



Professor Turner spoke of the observations 

 he had made with Mr. H. F. Newall in 

 the grounds of the observatory near Algiers. 

 He himself had undertaken the photo- 

 graphic work, while the spectroscopic fell to 

 his colleague, a joint program of polarization 

 work being also carried out. Professor Turner 

 spoke strongly in favor of the coelostat, which 

 he had employed, as an instrument for eclipse 

 work, and showed several of the photographs 

 he had obtained. From observations on the 

 brightness of the corona he concluded it was 

 many times brighter than the moon — perhaps 

 ten times as bright. 



Professor Ralph Copeland described the ob- 

 servations he made on behalf of the joint com- 

 mittee at Santa Pola, endorsing Sir N. Lock- 

 yer' s remarks as to the advantage of having the 

 aid of a man-of-war. With his small prismatic 

 camera, in which the optical parts were of 

 quartz or Iceland spar, he was in India, work- 

 ing the instrument himself, only able to take 



