1870.] Astronomy. 249 



3. ASTEONOMY. 



(Including Proceedings of the Astronomical Society.) 



The dismissal of M. Leverrier from his position at the head of the 

 Imperial Observatory at Paris has not surprised those who have 

 been familiar with the progress of events under his regime. By 

 his rough and uncourteous manner he had alienated the good- will 

 of his colleagues and subordinates ; while by restrictions conceived 

 in a jealous spirit he interfered with the progress of their labours. 

 Eecently he had given more tangible cause of offence; and the 

 astronomes adjoints took advantage of the lapse to bring a state- 

 ment before the Minister of the Interior, in which the conduct of 

 Leverrier throughout his administration was discussed at great 

 length. They finally submitted to the Minister the choice of dis- 

 missing Leverrier or accepting their resignations. After a brief 

 consideration, he selected the former alternative, and M. Delaunay 

 has been appointed to succeed Leverrier in the important position 

 of Imperial Astronomer. 



Though one cannot but regret that so distinguished and skilful 

 an astronomer should have been thus dismissed from a post for 

 which in a scientific sense he was so well fitted ; it cannot be doubted 

 that the punishment was well merited. No scientific ability, how- 

 ever eminent, can be pleaded in justification of a line of conduct by 

 which scientific interests suffer. 



Mr. Lockyer has communicated to the Koyal Society an inter- 

 esting paper " On the American Eclipse Observations." He quotes 

 a letter of Dr. B. A. Gould's to show that the evidence afforded 

 by the photographs suggests that the radiance seen around the 

 moon is not the corona at all, but actually the image of the chro- 

 mosphere. This is shown by many different considerations. The 

 directions of maximum radiance do not coincide with the great 

 beams of the corona ; they remained constant also, whereas these 

 last were variable. " There is a diameter approximately corre- 

 sponding to the solar axis, near the extremities of which the radiance 

 on the photographs is a minimum, whereas the coronal beams in 

 these directions were especially marked during a great part of the 

 total obscuration. The coronal beams also stood in no apparent 

 relation to the prominences, whereas the aureole seen upon the 

 photographs is most marked in their immediate vicinity." In this 

 paper Mr. Lockyer expresses the opinion that the corona, as he 

 has before suggested, is merely an atmospheric phenomenon, though 

 he fails to show how the atmosphere which lies between the eye 

 and the region near the eclipsed sun can be illuminated, or why, 

 supposing it to be so, the glare should not trench on the moon's 

 disc. According to ordinary optical considerations the blackness of 



