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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
whence the belt of annular phase traverses the South Atlantic, passing over 
Tristan d’Acunha, the few inhabitants of which islands may probably be 
startled by seeing the sun transformed into a narrow luminous ring, while he 
is high in their heavens. The central line crosses the African continent in 
the direction of Pemba Island, north of Zanzibar, where the annularity will 
continue nearly three minutes ; the middle of the eclipse occurring at 4h. 6m. 
P.M., local mean time. 
Comets of Short Period. — Prof. Schuler states that Brorsen’s comet will 
arrive at perihelion on March 30, 1879. It is probable that the comet will 
be first observed in the southern hemisphere. About six weeks later 
Tempel’s comet 1867(11.), which was reobserved in 1873 (after undergoing 
great perturbation from the planet Jupiter), will be due at perihelion. “ The 
elements deduced from the observations of 1873 alone,” says Mr. Hind, 
il would assign, without taking account of perturbation, April 26, for its 
perihelion passage ; but according to an orbit just published by M. -Raoul 
Gautier, of Geneva, which he says may be considered the most probable 
one till the observations to be expected next year afford additional means of 
determining the mean motion, the comet would not be in perihelion till May 
8 ; in which case its apparent track in the heavens will differ little from that 
which it pursued in 1873, when it arrived at its least distance from the sun 
on May 9. It is pretty sure to be always a faint object except for the larger 
telescopes ; and considering the uncertainty which still appears to exist re- 
garding the mean motion at its last appearance, a close search may be 
necessary for its rediscovery. M. Gautier is calculating the effect of Jupiter’s 
attraction during the actual revolution, with the intention of publishing an 
ephemeris in due time : this effect, however, must be small, as the comet 
has not been nearer to the planet than T5 (earth’s distance from the sun 
being 1) “ during the interval.” 
Sun-spots and Commercial Panics. — Among the many absurdities which 
the advocates of national solar observatories have invented, none is more 
absurd in itself, or more flatly contradicted by evidence, than the sin- 
gular theory that commercial panics usually occur near the epochs of sun-spot 
minima. We know the dates of sun-spot maxima and minima since 1700, in 
every case within a year or so. We have also the list of commercial panics 
ingeniously prepared by Prof. Stanley Jevonsto accord with the doctrine that 
the sun-spot period has an average value of 10-46 years ; and instead of the 
asserted agreement between sun-spot minima and panics, we find more than 
half of Jevons’s panics occurring nearer to sun-spot maxima than minima. 
Two of the most remarkable panics occurred almost exactly at the time of 
maximum solar maculation. The advocates of expensive new observatories 
seem to imagine that no one will be at the pains to analyse the evidence 
they offer. But, though the theory of special sun-spot influences is no doubt 
too absurd to be seriously dealt with, the arguments offered, with seeming 
seriousness, in its favour, are not. likely to escape criticism altogether. No 
one would seriously try to prove that the panic of 1866 did not occur for 
want of sun-spots that year ; but when the panic of 1815 is associated with a 
sunspot minimum, science may, without absurdity, just throw in the remark 
that 1815 was a year of maximum not of minimum sun-spottedness. 
Planetary Phenomena , fyc. — Uranus will be in opposition to the sun on 
February 21 at 4 a.m. Mercury will be at greatest elongation west on 
January 16, east on March 29. 
