256 



Mr. Lockyer : — Spectroscopic 



[Nov. 15, 



November 15, 1866. 

 Lieut. -General SABINE, President, in the Chair. 



In accordance with the Statutes, notice of the ensuing Anniversary 

 Meeting for the Election of Council and Officers was given from the 

 Chair. 



Dr. Gladstone, Mr. Huggins, Mr. Lassell, Sir John Lubbock, and 

 Colonel Smythe, having been nominated by the President, were elected by 

 ballot Auditors of the Treasurer's accounts on the part of the Society. 



Dr. John Charles Bucknill, Dr. William Augustus Guy, and Mr. John 

 William Kaye, were admitted into the Society. 



The following communications were read : — 



I. ^' On the Congelation of Animals.^^ By John Davy, M.D., 



E.R.S., &c. Beceived July 19, 1866. (See page 250.) 



II. "Letter to the President from Lieut. -Colonel Walker, R.E., 



E.R.S., Superintendent of the Trigonometrical Survey of India.'''' 

 (See page 254.) 



III. "Spectroscopic Observations of the Sun." By J. Norman 

 Lockyer, E.B.A.S. Communicated by Dr. Sharpey, Sec. 

 B.S. Beceived October 11, 1866. 



(Abstract.) 



The two most recent theories dealing with the physical constitution of 

 the sun are due to M. Faye and to Messrs. De la Rue, Balfour Stewart, 

 and Loewy. The chief point of difference in these two theories is the 

 explanation given by each of the phenomena of sun-spots. 



Thus, according to M. Faye the interior of the sun is a nebulous 

 gaseous mass of feeble radiating-power, at a temperature of dissociation ; 

 the photosphere is, on the other hand, of a high radiating-power, and at 

 a temperature sufficiently low to permit of chemical actiouv In a sun- 

 spot we see the interior nebulous mass through an opening in the photo- 

 sphere, caused by an upward current, and the sun-spot is black, by 

 reason of the feeble radiating-power of the nebulous mass. 



In the theory held by Messrs. De la Bue, Stewart, and Loewy f, the 

 appearances connected with sun-spots are referred to the effects, cool- 

 ing and absorptive, of an inrush, or descending current, of the sun's at- 

 mosphere, which is known to be colder than the photosphere. 



In June 1865 I communicated to the Royal Astronomical Society J 



Comptes Eendus, vol. Is. pp. 89-138, abstracted in * The Eeader,' 4th February, 

 1865. 



t Eesearches on Solar Physics. Printed for private circulation. Taylor and 

 Francis, 1865. 



X Monthly Notices Roy. Ast. Ssc, vol xxv. p. 237. 



