224 Afr. Baily on the Solar Eclipse 
produced that degree of obscurity alluded to by Herodotus. 
The celebrated Maclaurin, in his account of the annular 
eclipse which happened at Edinburgh, February 18th, 173 7, 
observes [Phil. Trans. Vol. XL, p. 177), that “ during the 
“ appearance of the annulus, the direct light of the sun was 
“ still very considerable ; but the places that were shaded from 
“his light, appeared gloomy:” — that “day-light was not 
“ greatly obscured; appearing only so much dimmer than 
“ usual, as that of the sun is, when seen through a gentle 
“ mist in a fine morning in April or May.” And, as a further 
proof of the trifling alteration this phenomenon made, he ob- 
serves, that “ there was little notice taken of this eclipse by the 
“ populace in the country: and I cannot but add, that several 
“ gentlemen of very good credit, and not in the least short- 
“ sighted, assure me, that about the middle of the annular ap- 
“ pearance they were not able to discover the moon upon the sun , 
“ when they looked without a smoked glass, or something 
“ equivalent.” In another account likewise of this eclipse, in 
the same volume, by Sir John Clerk, Bart, it is observed that 
“ there was no considerable darkness; but the ground was co- 
“ vered with a kind of dark greenish colour.” And M. Le 
Monnier (who came over from France on purpose to observe 
the annular eclipse of the sun, which happened July 14th, 1748) 
says, “ that when he looked at the sun with his naked eyes, 
“ during the middle of the eclipse, he could observe nothing 
“ upon the sun , but saw the sun full, though faint in his light.” 
[Phil. Trans. Vol. XLV. p. 388). 
In the account also which is given, in the Memoires de V Acad. 
Roy. des Sciences for 1724, of the total eclipse which happened 
on the 2 2d of May in that year, it is stated that, at the moment 
