THE SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 1898 , 
259 
crossing the edge of the sun and meeting what appears to be a perfectly black 
sky. If you hold your finger or thumb up against any white or bright object you 
will see a sort of shadow—a black drop, as it is so called. That had to be 
watched till it deepened in a peculiar way and the moment recorded. I remember 
directly after this I noticed, to my horror, a white line coming along on the edge 
of Venus as she had suddenly gone back, and it puzzled me sorely for a minute 
or two. Happily, I had recorded the critical moment first, so that it did not 
affect my observation. How we might have been warned, because Captain Cook 
had noticed it, but no one took the trouble to see what he had recorded. With 
regard to observation by eye, I believe one should go exactly by one’s own 
perception and never mind what one is expected to see. You are a very 
good instrument if you only give yourself a fair chance. I may say that I 
strongly believe in availing ourselves of ladies’ eyes as well as men’s 
(laughter). I believe they are better on the whole than men’s. There 
was a young lady, when I was in Egypt, in regard to whom I particularly 
noticed this. She had the advantage of irresponsibility and she was guided 
solely by her perceptions and, when I found that what I had noted agreed with 
her observations, it added much to my confidence ; in fact, I believed more in her 
observation than in my own. I think that there are reasons for concluding 
that women see, generally, rather better than men. One is that I have never 
heard of a woman who is colour blind. I read that this was so many years ago, 
and have watched since but have heard of none; but the most remarkable thing 
I ever heard was what was mentioned to me by Dollen, who is the brother-in-law 
of Struve, Astronomer Royal in St. Petersburg, and an experienced astronomer. 
He told me he was taking some ladies to observe Venus in his observatory, and 
he remarked to them before they put their eye to the telescope : “ Now, you will 
not see Venus as you think, a complete circle, but you will see her a very thin 
crescent like a new moon.” One young lady said : “I see her now as a crescent.” 
He said : “ You see her as a crescent; which way are the horns turned ? ” She 
said : “ Oh, the horns are turned to my left.” He said : “ Put your eye to the 
telescope.” She did so and then she said : “ I was wrong - I see it plainer in the 
telescope ; they are on the right. But,” she said, “it is very odd, when I take 
my eye away I see the horns on the left.” She did not know that it was a 
reversing telescope and that he was putting a very severe test upon what she saw, 
but she was right all the time. Now, I tried all sorts of ways to see Venus 
as a crescent when my eyes were at their best. I have tried pricking holes in 
cards, but I never could see Venus as a crescent. I think then if people were 
first fairly instructed what to watch and then made observations, with a perfect 
absence of prejudice and determined to put down simply what they saw, their 
observations would be more valuable than some of those shown us in the very 
interesting slides to-night. 
REPLY. 
Captain Hills —In reply to one or two points which have been raised. The 
difference between the photographs and drawings of observers is a very interesting 
point. There is no doubt that these long extensions of the corona which have 
been drawn are often real ones. Extensions have been photographed to quite a 
diameter and a half of the sun away from it. We must remember that the photo¬ 
graphic plate takes little account of differences of colour which may be quite 
apparent to the eye, and if therefore we take photographs and drawings of a 
white object on a blue ground the drawings will tend to show greater contrasts 
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