TIIE sun’s CORONA. 
389 
made during eclipses have revealed no bright points of light,* 
we may fairly conclude that there are many very small bodies 
instead of a few bodies of considerable dimensions. Crowds of 
such small bodies could scarcely fail to be discernible by their 
combined light during the total Obscuration of the sun. 
Thus, by an independent line of reasoning, it has been shown 
that light might be looked for where the corona is actually seen. 
But, again, Mr. Baxendell has been led to infer, from ob- 
served meteorological and magnetic changes on the earth, that 
a zone or ring or disc of matter surrounds the sun, extending 
to a distance closely corresponding to that assigned by Leverrier 
to the family of planets. The evidence adduced by Baxendell 
is of a very striking character, and seems almost inexplicable 
save on the hypothesis he adopts. And clearly, if such a zone 
or disc of matter exists, we might expect to see it during total 
eclipse. 
Here, then, is a totally distinct reason for expecting that 
some such object as the corona would appear when the sun is 
eclipsed. 
Then there is the zodiacal light — demonstrably not a terres- 
trial phenomenon, since it rises and sets with the celestial 
bodies as the earth rotates. We see this light during the 
twilight hours ; we recognise a gradual condensation towards 
its core, and still more markedly towards the place of the 
concealed sun. Is it reasonable to believe that this condensa- 
tion is suddenly checked before the sun is reached ? Or if we 
assumed this, must we not yet believe that the zodiacal matter 
forms at least a zone around the sun ? so that, despite the 
imagined gap between it and the sun, its light would in 
appearance reach to the sun’s place, did the background of 
dark sky but reach so far. 
Here, then, is a new reason for expecting that during totality 
light would be seen around the sun. 
Then, again, there are the meteor systems, of which the earth 
encounters more than a hundred, all whose perihelia must 
necessarily lie within the earth’s orbit. The chances are so 
enormous against the earth’s encountering one such system, 
unless many millions existed, that we are forced to conclude 
that there are many millions for each system actually en- 
countered by the earth. This is, be it remarked, not a hypo- 
thesis, but an inevitable conclusion. These meteor systems, 
illuminated as they must be by the sun, would be visible where 
the corona is, even if the perihelia lay as far from the sun as 
the earth’s orbit. But passing, as many must, quite close to 
him, they must be illuminated yet more brilliantly — probably 
rendered incandescent, or even vaporised, by intense heat. 
* With perhaps one exception during the American eclipse. 
