THE SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 1898 . 
257 
DISCUSSION. 
The Chairman —I do not know whether there is any gentleman who would 
like to ask Captain Hills any question on the subject of his lecture. I feel sure 
that this number of the “ Proceedings ” will be read with the greatest interest by 
officers quartered in India, where, doubtless, there are many who will be able 
both to observe and photograph the eclipse. On the only occasion on which I 
was fortunate enough to see a total eclipse I was only able to get hold of an 
ordinary 3-inch telescope belonging to the Library at Gibraltar, which, though 
mounted on a 3tand, had no mechanical means of moving it to follow the sun. 
But even with this imperfect instrument the view when totality commenced was 
most impressive and never to be forgotten. Captain Hills has so fully described 
what one ought to see, and how best to see it, that I feel sure it will stir up 
officers in India to get hold of the best optical means in their power to view the 
eclipse of 1898. With regard to photographing the eclipse, I am afraid amateurs 
will find themselves at a disadvantage, for I fear it requires rather more delicate 
apparatus than they will have means to manufacture to enable them to follow 
the movement of the earth with sufficient exactitude. I hope, however, some 
will have a try. I should like to ask Captain Hills if the common spectacle lens 
would not alter the focus of the different coloured rays and thus spoil the 
photographs ? 
Captain Hills— No, not materially. 
The Chairman —You think it would not make any practical difference r 
Captain Hills —No, it would give a fair definition. 
Major P. A. MacMahon, E.R.S., B.A.— VYe shall all be very grateful to Captain. 
Hills for the very lucid manner in which he has put everything before us ;infact, he 
has given us an excellent resume of the present state of knowledge of solar 
physics. It is a large subject, and he seems to me to have selected well from* an 
enormous mass of material, and to have presented it to us in a very concise 
form. We have the satisfaction, too, of knowing that w r e have got the informa¬ 
tion absolutely from the fountain head, because Captain Hills is at present the 
Secretary of the Permanent Eclipse Committee, and he has himself taken a very 
prominent part in recent eclipses and has produced most valuable work (applause). 
Tire other Secretary of the Permanent Eclipse Committee is Dr. Common, whom 
we have seen before in this room, and who, I am very sorry, is not here this 
evening. There is one thing which I think we must have all remarked in regard 
to the subject of the corona—the great difference between the photographs and 
the extremely fantastic drawings that were apparently made by certain selected 
observers in Washington. There did not seem to be any similarity. There 
appears to be a sort of optical illusion connected with the corona, for those who 
observe the phenomenon seem to see much which the photographic camera shows 
to have no existence. I have seen one total eclipse in India in the year 1874, 
but I was not at that time taking very much interest in the matter and I 
did not know what there was to be seen. It is a great satisfaction to know 
that a large number of our brother officers who will be quartered either on 
the shadow or within easy reach of it will have, many months beforehand, ample 
information on the subject, and will be able to take an interest in it and to make 
preparations for any observations they may think'of making. With regard to the 
sweep of the shadow over the landscape, I saw that phenomenon very well 
in Norway this summer. I went up with Dr. Commons’s expedition to see the 
total eclipse, but, as is well known, we did not see it, because ten minutes before 
the time of totality clouds came and obscured the sun and the moon, which was 
