378 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
THE SUN’S CORONA. 
Bi RICHARD A. PROCTOR, B.A., F.R.A.S. 
Author of “ Other Worlds than Ours,” “ Half-hours with 
the Telescope,” &c. &c. 
URINGr the approaching total solar eclipse the sun’s corona 
will undoubtedly be the chief object of the attention of 
observers. Hitherto, during great eclipses, the corona has been 
an object of but secondary — scarcely even of secondary — interest. 
Even during the American eclipse of last year, the prominences 
were scrutinised far more carefully than the corona. But next 
December all this will be changed. For the first time in the 
history of astronomy, the chief object of the observers of a 
total eclipse will be the determination of the true nature of 
this striking appendage ; and undoubtedly such observers as 
journey to Spain or Sicily to view the eclipse will regard 
their work as a failure, unless it enables them to solve some at 
least of the problems presented by the solar corona. 
On this account I think a brief consideration of the nature 
of those problems cannot fail to be of interest, while I am not 
without hope that the study of some of the facts which I am 
about to adduce may suggest modes of observation or research 
which may be applied successfully next December by those who 
are fortunate enough to view the coming eclipse. 
It may seem, perhaps, to some that the very circumstance 
that a great eclipse is approaching, during which many skilful 
ol>servers will study the phenomena of the corona, should serve 
to check all attempts at theorising. But as a matter of fact, the 
whole history of scientific progress shows how important it is that 
observation should not only be accompanied and followed, but 
in part preceded, by a process of inductive reasoning. More espe- 
cially is this the case where the observation is to be made in the 
course of a few brief moments. Hurried as an observer of a total 
eclipse must necessarily feel, and startled, too, by the grandeur 
and solemnity of the phenomena taking place before his eyes, 
