WEBB.—On Astronomy and Celestial Physics. hid 
This splendid aurora was coincident with a period of equally notable 
agitation of the surface of the sun. Signor Tacchini, the Director of the 
Observatory at Palermo, who devotes himself with great ardour to the spec- 
troscopic observation of the sun, thus describes the condition of things which 
he found prevailing when the sun rose on the morning of the 5th :—‘“ All the 
surface of the sun was in abnormal circumstances; the entire rim was 
covered with splendid flames; towards the North Pole these rose to the 
height of 20” (equal to about 9,000 miles), over an arc of 36° to the 
right and to the left, corresponding to a region of (incandescent) magne- 
sium which on the western border extended to the Equator. In this 
region, at 50° from the pole, a magnificent protuberance was observed 
which rose to a height of 2’ 40” (more than 70,000 miles), and from this 
point through an arc of 40° the rim presented numerous brilliant flames, 
and the atmosphere was completely encumbered with luminous threads and 
shining points up to a height of 2’ (55,000 miles). The chromosphere was 
throughout more elevated than usual.” Along with this agitation of the 
surface of the sun was to be noted the striking brilliance of the zodiacal light, 
which some physicists are now maintaining to be in fact a solar aurora. 
Intimately connected with the auroral display was the appearance of a group 
of meteors, the radial point of which was in an unusual position. As usual 
on such occasions a magnetic storm prevailed, and the various telegraph lines 
including the Atlantic cable were taken possession of by induced currents, 
which for a considerable period rendered it impossible to work them. 
The unusual climatic conditions, and the exceptional prevalence and 
intensity of auroras (that of 4th February was only the most conspicuous 
of an extensive series), have filled the transactions of scientific societies and 
the pages of periodicals devoted to science with statistics, arguments, and 
theories, all having for their object the elucidation of the cosmical origin of 
those terrestrial phenomena. I purposed to have given a general account of 
these to-night, but time will not permit. The intimate connection between 
both these classes of phenomena and the condition of the surface of the sun is, 
of course, a fundamental feature with all of them. Signor Tacchini gives it as 
his opinion that “our polar auroras are nothing else, at least in the majority 
of cases, than phenomena of electric induction due to the immense auroras 
produced on the sun.” In one form or another this is admitted by almost all 
theorists on the subject. One theorist has with much ingenuity attempted to 
connect these phenomena with one another, not as cause and effect, but as 
both resulting from a common cause. M. Silbermann, after a life-long study 
of atmospheric currents, forms of clouds, shooting-stars, auroras, and solar 
phenomena, has reached the conclusion that the innumerable streams of 
meteors which the earth is continually passing through, are the efficient causes 
