SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
ASTRONOMY. 
The Eclipse of July 29. — Undoubtedly the observations made during the 
recent eclipse form tbe chief feature of the astronomy of tbe last quarter. It 
was thought by many that little of importance would be learned. We are 
told, indeed, that one distinguished American astronomer declined to visit 
the shadow-track, on the ground that eclipses were “ played out.” But the 
observations were, in reality, of extreme interest and importance. 
In the first place the extension of the corona outwards into the zodiacal 
light has at last been demonstrated. Eew who have studied eclipse pheno- 
mena carefully have doubted that the outer corona belongs to the core of 
the zodiacal light, but this could not be said to be demonstrated observa- 
tionally until the zodiacal light had actually been seen during total eclipses. 
Hitherto observers had failed to effect this. During the eclipse of December, 
1870, Professor Newcomb employed the method suggested by Mr. Proctor a 
few months earlier, concealing the lighter part of the corona, and thus en- 
abling the eye to search more effectually for the fainter light of the zodiacal. 
But he failed on that occasion, the air being hazy at his station, and the 
circumstances otherwise unfavourable for an observation of so delicate a 
nature. Last July he repeated the attempt, and was rewarded with com- 
plete success. Stationed high above the sea level, and observing through an 
atmosphere of the utmost purity, he was able to trace a faint luminosity 
outside the corona proper, to a distance of six degrees from the eclipsed sun, 
nearly in the direction of the ecliptic. Professor Langley, on the summit of 
Pike’s Peak, 14,200 feet above the sea level, saw the corona elongated in the 
same direction as the ecliptic. He says : “ It resembled the zodiacal light ; 
I followed it in the most transparent atmosphere to a distance of twelve 
diameters of the sun on one side, and three on the other.” Professor Cleve- 
land Abbe, who was to have observed the eclipse from the same station, was 
taken ill the day before, and had to be removed to the Lake House (hotel), 
10,000 feet above the sea level. He had no instruments. But having re- 
covered sufficiently by Monday afternoon to be carried out to a slope facing 
westward, he then observed the corona with the naked eye during the whole 
of totality. He did not notice the faint luminosity, extending to a distance 
of twelve solar diameters, which Newcomb and Langley saw, but he obtained 
a more satisfactory view of coronal details (may we not almost say zodiacal 
details P) to a distance of about six diameters. In the direction of the 
