Obscurations of the Sun. 223 



" I oinit other passages of the same kind. In the Annals 

 of the Dynasty of Thang, founded in 16 18, I find mention of 

 stone hatchets ; and in other passages a stone knife, a stone 

 sword, and a stone agricultural implement for stirring the soil 

 are spoken of." 



OBSCURATIONS OF THE SUN". 



BY M. ED. EOCHE. 



The following paper appears in Gomptes Rendus for 27th 

 August, 1866 : — 



" The term obscuration has been applied to transitory dimi- 

 nutions of solar light not connected with eclipses by the moon. 

 Historians hare recorded several phenomena of this kind ; and 

 Humboldt notices a certain number in Cosmos, doubtless 

 selecting those which seemed to him the most important and 

 the best established. He admits, without hesitation, that at 

 certain epochs the disk of the sun was momentarily obscured, 

 and the light so weakened, that stars were visible in daytime. 

 Arago, in his Astronomy , has reproduced the same assertion. 

 An obscuration of the sun, therefore, is analogous to a total 

 eclipse, but longer in duration, and resulting from abnormal 

 conditions. 



" Having had occasion to examine the texts cited by Hum- 

 boldt, I perceived the necessity for rectifying the interpreta- 

 tion of several, which have led me to very different conclusions. 

 The greater part of these phenomena of obscurations were 

 veritable eclipses, badly observed, or inaccurately described. 

 Thus, to cite only one example, the obscuration which took 

 place on the 28th February, 1206, is nothing else than the 

 eclipse of the sun of 28th February, 1207, seen in Spain, 

 France, and Italy ; and if certain historians of the time referred 

 it to 1206, this was because the year then commenced on the 

 25th March, and not on the 1st January. 



" Except at the periods of eclipses due to the interposition 

 of the moon, the sun has never diminished in splendour, so as 

 to produce a kind of night, and allow the stars to appear. 

 The small number of authentic cases in which stars seem to 

 have been visible in full day, lose their marvellous character 

 when subjected to a searching examination. These pretended 

 apparitions of stars are usually thus reduced to some planet 

 which was visible in the daytime during an obscuration. 



" One of the most remarkable of these facts is that of 



