Ae tee , " ied phala el oe eee 0 be Gani eee- QF Fea 5-4-doh-0r rhe 2 fl. he he Boat: Be Fuiyboaeh te UA tnd a 4 MeSH yn Rae PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. From November 19, 1885, to December 17, 1885. VOL. XXXIX. OF CO; (S .14B822, 0 S CFF Oc eee sesscecces pry % we FE { f a 7 } \ - i re St iy j ‘ yA by U uf LONDON: HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN’S LANE, Printers in Ordinary to Her Wajesty. MDCCCLXKXXVI. LONDON ; HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, ST. MARTIN’S LANE. CON TE NPS. VOL. XXXIX. No. 239. ; ; Page On the Atomic Weight of Glucinum (Beryllium). Second Paper. By T. S. Humpidge, Ph.D., B.Sc., Professor of Chemistr y in the University College of Wales, Aberystwith ... SACRA Ao: Ln RCS Ain BNR Ne saatne Hg) | On Certain Definite Integrals. No. 13. By W. H. L. Russell, A.B., BAN ra eR ee SNe i ascot acto des cto guecaveccnnsuissed be SubeER de Soest Weeds ob LUG dcdaeh dads 20 On Certain Definite Integrals. No. 14. By W. H. L. Russell, A.B., Ie a ee asta ad de sean of Sughd sated nse cen cbuneseasebn eat 22 The Vortex Ring Theory of Gases. On the Law of the Distribution of Energy among the Molecules. By J. J. Thomson, M.A, F.RS., Fellow of Trinity College, Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics Memnmeemmavarstiy Of Cam brid SC.......ccciecscstcacssceSoucsascacccesonseea-dasceperdersecsteobione 23 The History of the Kew Observatory. By Robert Henry Scott, M.A., F-.R.S., Secretary to the Meteorological Council 00.0... oes ecsseeesesceeceeeeens 37 On the Microscopic Characters of some Specimens of Devitrified Glass ; with Notes on certain analogous Structures in Rocks. By Douglas PEP sreetn at at Oh VE eu PUR PUL LLE «22.5 boca cccdoca ge sccsoneehe dius caetia soceestepQacteimadh’y“ansSeanshes 87 Tue BaAxeriaAn Leoture—On the Corona of the Sun. By William ree re Nae Be a ceo cece ca cncete Bos ce set Recent cageé seed adeeseb nse nasee pace neces 108 Results of the Harmonic Analysis of Tidal Observations. By A. W. Baird, Major R.E., and G. H. Darwin, F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College and Plumian Professor in the University of Cambridge ..........cceceeceee 135 No. 240.—November 19, 1885. On the Total Solar Eclipse of September 9, 1885 (in a Letter to Professor Stokes, Sec. R.S.). By James Hector, M.D., F.R.S., Director of the Ce COMOOTEA EVEN GING AIC QUATRE 5) 2a. cee “sscsess cunsceciyecohcesadiledie sate sesqucvb saccades 208 - On the Total Solar Eclipse of September 9, 1885 (in a Letter to J. N. iroglevers BEG Sis bays Ag Se AMG OM es ide seas ceeds hvevececnnade endeupanceseboss 211 IV Page Report on a Series of Specimens of the Deposits of the Nile Delta, obtained by the recent Boring Operations. By J. W. J udd, F.R.S., Sec. G.S., Professor of Geology in the Normal School of Mines. Com- municated by desire of the Delta Committee ......... ...scccescseceenceeesstecneneees 213 On Evaporation and Dissociation. Part I. By Professor William Ramsay, Ph.D., and Sydney Young, D.Sc., Lecturer and Demonstrator of Chemistry 1 in University College, Br istol 6s a avant acest eee 228 On the Phenomena accompanying Stimulation of the Gland-Cells in the Tentacles of Drosera dichotoma. By William Gardiner, M.A., Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, Demonstrator of Botany in the Uni- ICUSILY: vs socct ace chaccvscesnarthassscepbtesevs ss’ sas osnSereleas apeelsic alse nes OiGerinc' sateen aan 229 On Variations in the Amount and Distribution of Fat in the Liver-Cells of the Frog. By J. N. Langley, M.A., F.R.S., Lecturer on Histology im the University of Cambridge .:........c cise ticsecsossossesnseonsnenst eed eee 234 November 26, 1885. On the Fertilised Ovum and Formation of the Layers of the South African Peripatus. By Adam Sedgwick, M.A., Fellow of Trinity Wollege, Cam bridge’ 225.58 isiive.ce-se Bec dgescenentt sn eathcnyiseactee ec, «sp eee 239 On the Formation of the Mesoblast, and the Persistence of the Blasto- pore in the Lamprey. By Arthur E. Shipley, B.A. .......csceeeeeee 244 Researches on Myohzematin and the MHistohematins. By C. A. Mae inn, MLAs, VED 8. scdsissebacsscdecioenensnabecdedeennenen trae aee eee arr 248 On the Geometrical Construction of the Cell of the Honey Bee. By Henry Hennessy, F.R.S., Professor of Mathematics in the Royal College of Science, 253 Results deduced from the Measures of Terrestrial Magnetic Force in the Horizontal Plane at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, from 1841 to 1876. By Sir G. B. Airy, K.C.B., F.R.S., late Astronomer Royal ........ 25D Studies of Disinfectants by New Methods. By A. Wynter Blyth, Miedical’ Officer of Health) ...s.iclodiccsoles enctesoidie eecteecesass ce 259 November 30, 1885. ANNIVERSARY MEETING. HLEPOLE OL AWGILOLS iiss. cse.meeecowas degssctorsacshicsnantiy eaeteeisiolossssich 277 List of Fellows deceased since last Anniversary .........cccccssssssssscecesescscsecececere 277 ClECHEM EL e dei hnceote Masten mindhons de ee 278 INGOTESSIOL the EVEStdeMib. 5. cscccicsissecctendbo ee ce 278 Presentation of the Medals io. cccccc)scssececvdedeccsesssaliatedisterdiien toca 299- Riection-of Council and Officers... j.. ihe. iebveiessoscseoisdicdelicchicseuncuc 301 Table showing Progress and ey State of Society with regard to RUS THONVS aren susshscsee-neseaaneyotsivese-roereadisthestegs teversskebsenss leBevks Suds ateceon ee 301 AY ; Page SME TENINENE MSNA TE TIMER U wis, seesctuceteac ce ieahaecd ooo ececdoluadcbuiae Resiecbeoutsasscaceeres a te 302——-305 OR aries BN ee ee Mobs ct abcess esa cundsqseiacoaehtvaldaricnlensoiavtiboebeksessfedayenesen +400. 306—309 Account of the Appropriation of the sum of £4,000 (the Government Grant) annually voted by Parliament to the Royal Society, to be employed in aiding the Advancement Of Science... cece sence eeeeeeee cane 310 Aeeoume ol Grants trom the Donation Fund oo... c.sccseceenteoee sosceeeeeeacoeneeee 313 Fre OMRON CC OUMIMNTELEE O.5)5:.n0 cece are.esacere(cscnseseoesoueeseeen jecnasessenaiveotvas seshiness 314 Tobsts, Git, IPSS TGS. cat bade das eee ai a De cs ep EPO 339 Contributions to the Chemistry of Chlorophyll. By Edward Schunck, JERS cneie eon sos 12 6 no geB DUR PREL REES MI MRE ACG EE SHE i IRB creme MSU iat 348 No. 241.—December 10, 1885. Preliminary Results of a Comparison of certain simultaneous Fluctuations . of the Declination at Kew and at Stonyhurst during the Years 1883 and 1884, as recorded by the Magnetographs at these Observatories. By the Rev. Stephen Joseph Perry, F.R.S., Director of the Stonyhurst Observatory, and Balfour Stewart, LL.D., ER. S., Professor of Physics at the Owens College, Wiamchectene he ee se 362 On the Magnetisation of Steel, Cast Iron, and Soft Iron (being the Investigation for which the Watt Prize of 1884 was awarded by the Senate of the University of Glasgow). By John W. Gemmell ............ 374 On the Limited Hydration of Ammonium Carbamate. By H. J. H. Fenton, M.A., F.C.S., F.1.C., Demonstrator in Chemistry in the University of Cambridge Sere itn Oe erie tae URL Meer Ge gee gu Mere ele 386 On the Relation of the Reptiliferous Sandstone of Elgin to the ves Old Red Sandstone. By Professor John W. Judd, ER. S., Sec. G.S..... 394 Experimental Researches in Cerebral Physiology. II. On the Muscular Contractions which are evoked by Excitation of the Motor Tract. By V. A. Horsley, M.B., B.S., Professor Superintendent of the Brown Institution and Assistant Professor of Pathology in University College, London, and EH. A. Schafer, F.R.S., Jodrell Professor of Physiology in “ead seer IBS (CONN sais 10) SAO ee ve a PA Oa Ra 404 December 17, 1885. An Experimental Investigation into the Form of the Wave Surface of PiiaeaaeeneiammesvO: NicConmel) Bea oie ec sscscccssesdccsleceesllbsseeosoee 409 Becond Report on the Evidence of Fossil Plants regarding the Age of the Tertiary Basalts of the North-East Atlantic. By “J. Starkie 7 EAL a 28 cacy ogee oe AA GORDIE GH A CO ETO Pap i 412 hddition to a former Paper on Trichophyton tonsurans (‘‘ Proc. Roy. Biewe VO: co. pn 2et a by Georme: Voit, MD cu vib elses deccesecces sats 415 Mm New Form of Spectroscope. By J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S............... 416 vi Page On the Formation of Vortex Rings by Drops Falling into Liquids, and some allied Phenomena. By J. J. Thomson, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College, Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics, Cam- bridge, and H. F. Newall, M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge ................ 417 A Preliminary Account of a Research into the Nature of the Venom of the Indian Cobra (Waja tripudians). By R. Norris Wolfenden, M.D. Cantab. (from the Physiological Laboratory, University College, MRO INGON Fos. 25. huss can ces tan ei yoeas de de Deis llecioesattenatnelals suapetegee 5.0 et. 436 ies aN BOSOUS 0. pte cet cies cease ezeove isos: eiek posean niaee. tor ease anya ee .. 436 The Influence of Bodily Labour upon the Discharge of Nitrogen. By We! North! B. As, WiC 38 ie) secs. spear nai sabes steve 9°53, = 359-3". We = 93-46. Oh - L720. ¢ = 10°: LI, Ge Oren ee: We 96719) 8 = fj BS e0y a) =: 14°88; Ts 447°:1. Wiarton (46 Oe == 15°50 Gg == 9364. 20 Mr. W. H. L. Russell. “On Certain Definite Integrals. No. 13.” By W. H. L. RussEL, A.B., F.R.S. Received June 18, 1885. In a paper which will be found in the “‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society ” for June, 1865, I gave methods for expressing the sum of certain series by definite integrals, or in other words, of expressing ¥'(#) by the form /PQ*d@. As shown in my last paper, this method is immediately connected with the solution of those partial differential equations which have constant coefficients by definite integrals, a circumstance which never crossed my mind til] lately. In the present communication I hope to make further extensions in both these direc- tions. Case I. It was proved in the paper cited that the function | So(n)+ Vx) could be expressed in the form /PQ’d0, whereas ¢(n) and x(n) are rational (misprinted identical) functions of (m7). In the same way we may obtain A O(n) + 7 GaEe/ aan For it was proved in that paper that “/(gn+ %/xn) can be expressed in the above form if 1 8 eX") (y(m)) 2 can be thus expressed, and therefore Von V (x(n) +4/ ln) can be thus expressed in the form /PQ’d@ if 1 | Eon) + Yaa) can be expressed in this form, which can be done by repeating the process, This investigation assumes, however, that y() + /w(n) is less than unity. Case II. Suppose it were required to reduce eX, where N = Vb(2) + x(n) + /w(n) to form fPQ"dé. Then Sse) (sin 6)(1 —N®) and since the denominator can aw), 1L—2Ncosé+N? be rationalised, we fall back on Case I. N must of course be less than unity. Case III. When p is greater than 1 Le pet Mee p 7 Jol—2pcosd+p? and p?—1l=p?—2pcosd+1+2(p—cos@) cos 0Q—2sin*d. ? On certain Definite Integrals. 21 Hence _ th ee eis] ae aA camel cosé 1—2pcos0+ p? (p—cos@)? + sin?6” ‘ae 2sin20 (p—cos@)?+ sin20 © .2(p—c088) : . © -x(p—cosé) . ‘ ; =142 cos | < cos z sin 6d@—2 sin of é€ sinz sin 6dé. 0 0 By this means #(=) can be expressed as double integral. So can p F(p), but then p must be less than unity. We will now apply these considerations to the solution of linear partial differential equations. Let GE a ae or as we shall write it, F (« ay yo us 0 dx ~ dy then e.. as before a specimen term Axv”y”, m and » must be con- nected by the relations F(m, »)=0. Suppose from this we find Then, as will be seen by the reasoning employed in my former paper, the equation can be solved if MEL O(n) + V x(a) + Von) + can be expressed in the form fPQ”d0, which brings us to Case II. The same process may in certain cases be applied to. partial differen- tial equations with three independent variables. Consider the series A+ Bae+ B'y+C2?+Cay+C"y?+, . . . when A, B, B’ are arbitrary constants. ‘This may be written on Poisson’s principles Hi@)+ Boe. gt he@) ye ww when Fj, F,, Fs, . . . are arbitrary functions, and this again F(z, y) when F is an arbitrary function of the two variables. du d*u Now consider the partial differential equation ey ee 7 OG asl dédy shite d d ad . shall write it (4, u=2( «— )( y— \u, and let Aw”y”z" be a specimen dz du]\~ dy term of the solution, as in previous cases, then r=2mn, and our object must be to reduce w”y”2” to the form /PQ,”Q,”; this may be easily done by remembering that 2mnu=(m+n)?—m?—n?, for oo ~—(u—a)? ont | € ‘i du= /7 22 On certain Definite Integrals. fo 0) 2 be Hence | e2au—u* dy e® J 1 —oo Lee) and therefore ee = 1 dlmtn)u-12 9 Tj)-a2 ‘ =n cM Ga = Ae & also é =F e-P cos 2mpdp, and so for «” , 9%] "00 These transformations give the required form. If we have two partial differential equations— d dz d Ei eS, 9 a 0, (27, “dy “) d oda d B(ot, y4, 2% )u=0 'G- “dy 27.) ; then substitute as before Axv”y"z" for u; then we have the equations FB (m, 2, r)=0, F,(m, n, r)=0, whence m=@(r), n=x(r), and we fall back on the first case. “On Certain Definite Integrals.” No. 14. By W. H. L. RussEuu, A.B., F.R.S. Received June 18, 1885. It follows from the expansion of cos"@ in terms of the cosines of the multiples of 6, that nm—l n—2 norTtd ae 9. Cre. | r 7 . cos n0 cos (n—2r)ede@, 0 and consequently this theorem can be used in the summation of series involving binomial coefficients. I propose to give a few examples of this. - From the binomial theorem, when the index is even, we have ™ 3900s” 8 sin (n—1)0 cosng_ 7 21-1?) .. (n+l) 0 sin 0 22n 1.2...(m—1) and when the index is odd, 2nt+1 [ao cos @ sin n0 COs no __ 3 if 0 sin 0 Since (1+2)*'=(1+2)"(1l—zv+2?—a3+ . . . . ), therefore equating the coefficients of a", we have The Vortex Ring Theory of Cases. 23 1—n+n. oat il ; ante . (r+1) terms Hence i cos”—'6dé@ ‘ cos (n+1)0+(—1*" cos (n—2r+1)@) \ 0 “The Vortex Ring Theory of Gases. On the Law of the Distribution of Energy among the Molecules.” By J. J. Tomson, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College, Caven- dish Professor of Experimental Physics in the University of Cambridge. Received June 4, 1885. In any kinetic theory of gases the statistical method of investiga- tion must be used, and since the separate molecules of the gas are supposed to possess some properties to very different extents, it is necessary to know how many molecules there are which have the measure of any given property between certain limits. Thus the question of the distribution of configuration and velocity amongst the molecules is one of the most important problems in any theory of gases. , This problem has been solved for the ordinary solid particle theory by Maxwell and Boltzmann, and their researches are the more valu- able as the results do not depend on any assumption about the law of force between the molecules. In this paper I shall attempt to solve the same problem for the vortex atom theory of gases. In this case the question is a little more complicated, as the radii of the vortex rings can vary as well as their velocities. This is one of the most striking differences between the two theories ; according to the ordinary theory all the molecules of a gas are of the same size, according to the vortex atom theory the molecules of the same gas vary in size. If this be true, a porous plate of the requisite degree of fineness might play in this theory the part which Maxwell’s demons play in the ordinary theory. For let us suppose that we have two chambers, A and B, separated by a porous plate, and that A is filled with gas initially while B is empty, then if the pores in the porous plate are so fine that only the smaller molecules can get through from A to B, then, though some of the molecules will recross the plate, some gas will remain in B, and the 24 Prof. J. J. Thomson. molecules in B will, on the whole, be moving faster than those in A, and so may be supposed to be at a higher temperature, since the smaller the radius of a vortex ring the greater its velocity. Thus B and A might be the hot and cold chambers respectively of a heat engine, and in this way work might be derived from the gas which was origi- nally at a uniform temperature, so that this arrangement would not obey the second law of thermodynamics. | If the molecule on the vortex atom theory of matter consisted of a single ring its velocity of translation would be a function only of its radius. It is, however, for several reasons advisable to take a more general case, and to suppose that the molecule consists of several - rings linked through each other, the rings being nearly equal in radius, and also nearly coincident in position; or what is perhaps better, we may suppose that the vortex core forms an endless chain, but that instead of being a single loop like the simple ring, it is looped into a great many coils nearly equal in radius and nearly co- incident in position. We may realise this way of arranging the vortex core if we take a cylindrical rod whose length is great com- pared with its radius, and describe on its surface a screw with n threads so that the threads make m/n turns in the iength of the rod, where m is an integer not divisible by ». Then bend the rod into a circle and join the ends, the threads of the screw will form an endless chain with » loops, and we may suppose that this represents the way in which the vortex rings are arranged; it is shewn, however, in my “Treatise on the Motion of Vortex Rings ”’ that this way of arranging the vortex core is unstable if » be greater than six. When the vortex core is arranged in the way just described, the velocity of translation is no longer a function of the size of the ring alone ; at the same time when a vortex ring of this kind moves about in a finid where the velocity is not uniform, the change in the velocity of the ring will be due chiefly ‘to the change in its radius. For the velocity at a small distance d from the circular axis of a vortex ring whose radius is a and strength m is— so that as 8a/d is very large, a change 6a in the radius of the ring produces a change in the velocity approximately equal to— while a change éd in the distance of the point from the circular axis of the ring produces a change in the velocity equal to— _ od m d | 2ra The Vortex Ring Theory of Gases. 25 Thus for the same relative changes of a and d the changes in the velocities are in the ratio of log 8a/d to 1, and as log 8a/d is very great, we may neglect the change in the velocity of the ring produced by the alteration in the distance between the loops in comparison with that produced by the alteration in the size of the ring. The kinetic energy of a quantity of fluid containing vortex rings of this kind may conveniently be divided into several parts. The first part consists of the kinetic energy of the irrotationally moving fluid surrounding the ring, the second part of the kinetic energy of ‘the rotationally moving fluid; this again may conveniently be divided into two parts, one part being the kinetic energy due to the rotation in the core, and the other that due to the translational velocity of the vortex core. The kinetic energy of the irrotationally moving liquid surrounding the ring may be expressed in several ways; itis equal to the strength of the ring multiplied by the rate of flow of the fluid through it; the most convenient expression for our purpose, however, is Ava’, where v is the velocity of translation of the vortex ring resolved along the normal to its plane, a is the radius of the ring and Aa constant. (See p. 12 of my “ Treatise on the Motion of Vortex Rings.”’) The energy due to the rotation of the vortex core is 5n7pm-a, where 7 is the number of loops in the ring, p the density of the fluid, and m the strength of the ring. The kinetic energy due to the translational velocity of the ring is EM (uw? +02 + uw), where M is the mass of fluid in the ring and u?+v?+w? the square of the velocity of the ring. Thus if T be the whole kinetic energy due to the ring— T=Ava? +4naz’*pm?at+dM(u?+v?+w?). Let us consider a vortex ring placed in a fluid where there is a velocity potential O independent of that due to the vortex ring itself, the value of © is supposed to be known at every point of the fluid. We have to fix the position, size, and motion of the ring. We can do this if we know the coordinates (a, y, z) of its centre, its radius (a), the direction cosines (J, m, n) of its plane, and V that part of the velocity at the ring which is due to the ring itself. V is not neces- sarily the actual velocity of the ring, for this latter quantity is the 26 Prof. J. J. Thomson. resultant of V, and the velocity whose components are dQ/dz, dQ/dy, dQ /dz. Let t=la?, 4=mat, C—na?, o= Ve Then we shall prove that it is possible to determine p and q so that the number of molecules which have the values of g, y, 2, &, 9, €, @, between 2, y, 2, & 4, [, w, and a+dz, y+dy, z+dz, E+dé, 4+dy, €+df, w+dw, and for which the kinetic energy of the molecule and the surrounding fluid is T, is when the gas is in a uniform and steady state— Ce" dadydzdédyndfdw, where C is some constant determined by the number of molecules in the gas. We shall first prove that this represents a possible distribution among the molecules of the quantities denoted by £, 7,¢,, when the vortex rings are moving in a fluid whose velocity varies from point to point ; we disregard for the present the effects of any collisions which may take place among the vortex rings themselves. In this case the rings are supposed to be so far apart that they do not influence each other, so that the velocity of any ring is the same as if the others did not exist. ‘T represents the kinetic energy due to the ring and the distribution of velocity potential Q on this supposition. We have to prove that if the distribution be represented by this expression at any time, it will continue to be represented by it. This will be the case if the expression Ce" dadydzdédyndfdw, remains constant as the molecules move about. Now T, the kinetic energy, remains constant, so that we have to prove that ' dadydzdédydfdw | also remains constant. Since Q is the part of the velocity potential which is not due to the rings themselves, by the equations on pages 65 and 66 of my “Treatise on the Motion of Vortex Rings,’”’ we have— igs dt 2 anes dl BQ a dt dh? dhdx in. M1) Sp #1, and 2, +dx,, yy +dy,, 2,+d2, & +dé,, 9, +44), G+dg, #,+dw,. We shall call this group B. The number of molecules in this group is De" da, dy,dz,dé,, dy dg, dw,. We shall suppose that the molecules of the A group come into collision with those of the B group, and that the values of the co-ordi- nates after the collision are denoted by putting dashes to the letters which denoted the corresponding coordinates before the collision. In my “‘ Treatise on the Motion of Vortex Rings ”’ it is proved that the effects of a collision depend on, in addition to the quantities already specified, the angle which the line joining the centres of the rings when they are nearest together makes with the shortest distance between the directions of motion of the rings; let us call this angle ¢. @ is positive for the ring which first passes through the shortest distance between the directions of motion of the ring, negative for the other ring, and it may have any value between —7/2 and 7/2. We may suppose that a collision takes place when the shortest distance between the centres of the two rings is less than some assigned value ; it is not, however, necessary to limit ourselves to any particular way of defining a collision. 30 Prof. J. J. Thomson. Let yd@ be the fraction of the number of pairs of molecules which come into collision in the unit of time and contain one molecule from the group A and another from the group B, and for which ¢ is between ¢ and ¢d+d¢. Then if the states in which the A and B molecules are in after the collision be called A’ and B’ respectively, the number of pairs of molecules which in the unit of time leave the state {AB} and enter the state {A'B’} is— cp|" Ape" T*T)) ydadydzd&dydgdwdz,dy,dz,dé\dy,df,dw,}. 2 Now the distribution will be steady if this equals the number of molecules which leave the state {A’B’} in the unit of time, but this number is— 7 cp| Api eT ME tT) dz! dy'dz'dé'dy'dg'dw'dz' dy'dz' dé’ \dy',de';dw'y}. 2 We can see that if the gas does not exhibit vector properties + must equal y'. For since the motion is reversible, if any two molecules whose coordinates are & 7, €, w; &, 9), €, #,, come into collision, then the molecules whose coordinates are —£&, —y, —€, w; —&, —m, —€,, w,, will also collide. let these latter molecules be said to be in the states (—A'), (—B') respectively. Thus the percentage of collision for the states (AB), that is for collisions between two molecules in the states A and B, respectively is the same as for the state (—A’', —B’). But since as many molecules are moving in any direction as in the opposite, the number of molecules in the state —A!’ will equal the number in the state A’, and similarly the number of molecules in the state —B’ is the same as the number in the state B’, and since the gas exhibits no vector properties, the mean path between the collisions between the molecules in the states A’ and B’ must equal the mean path between the collisions between the molecules in the states —A’ and —B’; and thus the percentage of collisions must be the same. So that the percentage for the state (A’B’) equals the percentage for the state (—A', —B’), but this, as we saw, equals the percentage for the state AB; and, therefore, the percentage for the state AB equals the percentage for the state (A’B’); or y=y’. Since the collision may be fixed with regard to either molecule, and since ¢ is positive for one molecule, negative for the other, we see that y cannot change sign with ¢, so that if y is a function of ¢ it must be one of the form— 1A=Vot 11 COSP+y_ cos 2ZP+.... The Vortex Ring Theory of Gases. 31 Again, dadydz=da'dy'dz' dx, dy,dz,=da',dy’,dz', and none of the quantities are functions of ¢. We have also since the total kinetic energy is not changed by the collision T+ T,=T’ + T,’, and neither of these quantities is a function of ¢. Since this is so, we see that the expressions we have assumed will represent a steady distribution if— T us iz ydp{ dédndgdwdk,dydgjduy } =|| = ydp(de'dy'dg dw dE dy’ dg dw’). wus Ee 2 Let us suppose that the collisions are not violent enough to make the vortex rings deviate greatly from their circular forms, and let us consider the effect produced on an A molecule by collision with a B molecule. Let Q' be the potential due to the B molecule, then just as before we have— osetten| aa +0 20 ( [+o q@2O +0 2Q +0 d?2Q = 1—4 —— dt— dt weed —— 4 é E+( wel dh2 fe axe 1 | dxdy & a ar with similar expressions for 7’ and ¢’. Here hf is drawn along the normal to the A molecule, and the coordinates are supposed to be changed by the collision by only a small fraction of their values. Now the only thing that makes any difference between this case + /J2 and the former one is that now | aa is a function of v, and therefore of w. If therefore we assume that 3(p—2)=q, we have o 2 dé’ dy'dé'dw' =dédydedw{1 + qu" GS \ dw} —o dh —« dh by § 29 of my “Treatise on Vortex Motion” is of the form f sin 34, where f 1s a function of w but not of , thus :— oo 2 Now i Ce is proportional to the change in w, and therefore, dE dn dcdw! =dedndtdw{1 > igual sin 36}. Ww Similarly 1 if / d ! ° dé" dy’ dE"\dw'j=dé&,dy,dg,dw,{1+ qu, ol sin 3¢}, a 39 Prof. J. J. Thomson. so that neglecting the squares of small quantities d'dn' dd’ de yay’ = dn dG dud Ay dE de {1+ 3quL sin 39 w& 7 pig Sh sin 3p}, dw and therefore 2 2 Since we see from the form of y that— zr | 7 sin Soydg—_0. Thus the condition for a steady distribution is satisfied, and we therefore conclude that a possible distribution of the values of the coordinates among the molecules of the gas is represented by the expression— Ce dédyndfdwdadydz, where E=la?, y=ma?, C=na?, w=02 and 3(p—2)=¢. Let us consider the case when there is no external disturbance in the fluid containing the vortex rings; the distribution will be uniform in all parts of the fluid, so that the number of molecules which have the quantities £, y, ¢, w, between & y, ¢, w and &+dé, y+dy, €¢+dé, w+dw is independent of #, y, z, and so by the above formula will be proportional to— , e—"Tdedndfdw, or if the normals to the planes of the vortex rings point uniformly in all directions the number of molecules which have a between a and a+da, v between v and v+ dv is proportional to— e *T g3p—lyi—-ldadv, or substituting for g the value 3(p—2) e—*T g3r- 18 Tdadv. Though in the kind of molecule we are considering, a and v may be treated as independent variables, still the limits of v depend upon the value of a. For suppose the molecule to consist of n rings The Vortex Ring Theory of Gases. 8a linked together, then for a given value of a the velocity of the molecule will be least when the links are so far apart that they do not greatly affect each other’s velocity ; in this case v will equal— m Sa logy; 27a e the velocity of the molecule will be greatest when the m rings are close together ; in this case v will equal— nm 8a se og, 27a e So that if we integrate first with respect to » we must do so between these limits. Since, however— T=Aa?v+4nm?r?pat4Mr?, we cannot perform the integration except between the limits zero and infinity for both a and v; if, however, n be large, or the molecule complicated, the results got by integration between the limits— m log - and — lows 8a 27a TO for v and zero and infinity for a will not differ much from those got by integrating between zero and infinity for both a and v. The second term in the expression for the kinetic energy is very small compared with the first, so that it may be neglected without causing sensible error. We shall find it convenient to take as new variables the two remaining terms in the expression for the kinetic energy; we shall call these new variables « and f respectively, where x denotes the energy in the fluid surrounding the ring, 6 the energy due to the translational velocity of the ring, so that— Aadvu= a IMv’=86, and therefore i dad We d v Wk 2d, so that 3n—16 Cen °0-1430-Tdadu= C’e-Ha+B)x se? B 4 dadp, where C’ is a new constant. Thus the number of molecules which have the energy in the fluid surrounding them between a and «+62, and also the energy due to the translational velocity of the ring between £ and B+ 68 is— VOL. XXXIX. D 34 Prof. J. J. Thomson. 3p—2 3p—16 C'e*etB)a 2 B 4 dadB, and if the molecule is so complex that a and 8 may be regarded as independent, then the limits of « and f are zero and infinity. The quantity p is at present undetermined. Let us apply this result to find the pressure of a gas on the sides of the vessel which contains it. To do this we must consider what takes place at the sides of the vessel. The general nature of this action was described by Sir William Thomson (‘‘ Nature,” vol. xxiv, p. 47). As the vortex rings move up to the sides of the vessel they swell out and move slowly up the bounding surface, where they form a layer of swollen vortices sticking to the sides of the vessel. A vortex ring coming up to the surface tends to wash off the vortex rings attached to the surface on either side of it, so that when things have got into a state of equilibrium there is a vortex ring washed off for each one that comes up. Thus the pressure on the surface of the vessel will be the same as if the vortex ring struck against the surface and was reflected away again with its velocity reversed, if we assume, as seems natural, that the average velocity of the.rings leaving the surface is the same as of those approaching it. Thus each ring that comes up may be looked upon as communicating twice its momentum to the surface, and we can explain the pressure of a gas, just as in the ordinary theory. We have to remark here, however, that the phrase momentum of the vortex ring is ambiguous, as there are two different momenta con- nected with the ring; there is (1) the momentum of the ring and the fluid surrounding it; and (2) the momentum of the fluid forming the ring alone ; this is proportional to the velocity of the ring, while (1) is not only not proportional to the velocity, but in the single ring decreases as the velocity of the ring increases ; in a very complex ring it does not necessarily do this, but even in this case it is not propor- tional to the velocity. Now, when a vortex ring gets stopped by a surface the question arises whether the momentum communicated to the surface is the momentum (1) or (2). The answer to this question depends on what we consider the nature of the surface to be. If the surface stops the fluid as well as the ring, then no doubt (1) is the momentum which is communicated to the surface. If, however, the surface stops the ring but allows the greater part of the fluid to flow on, then the momen- tum communicated to the surface is evidently approximately equal to (2). If we consider that the surface is formed of vortex rings the latter supposition seems the more probable, as the fluid in which the rings move can hardly be supposed to be stopped by such a porous surface. We may illustrate this by a mechanical analogy. Let us suppose that we have a number of anchor rings with circulation The Vortex Ring Theory of Gases. 35 established round them moving about in water, and striking against a grating immersed in it. The momentum of the anchor ring will consist of two parts, one due to the circulation, the other due to the translational velocity of the ring. If the grating is so fine that the Openings are only a small fraction of the whole area, then the momentum communicated to the grating will be the whole momen- tum ; if, however, the grating is a coarse one, so that the openings form the larger portion of the area, then the momentum communi- cated to the grating will only be the momentum of the ring itself. And this seems to correspond to the case of vortex motion. Thus if @ be the velocity of the gas resolved along the normal to the boundary surface, the pressure on the surface per unit of area or the momentum communicated to it per unit of time is— using the same notation as before. Now, the number of molecules which have the quantities 2 and § between 2, @ and 2+dz, 8+d£ is proportional to— —Ka+f) 3p—2 3p—16 é€ a2 6 4 dad, so that if N be the number of molecules— where ['(m) is written for « : | e Tf, ‘gt dz 0 ’ and the molecule is supposed to be so complex that we may, without sensible error, suppose the limits of « and # to be zero and infinity. We may take 1jh as proportional to the temperature 9 of the gas, since it is the same for each of two gases which are in contact with each other, and is also proportional to the mean kinetic energy of the rings themselves. Substituting the above value for ef, we see that the pressure equals (p <5, and thus varies as N@. 36 The Vortex Ring Theory of Gases. Thus Boyle and Gay-Lussac’s laws follow from the vortex atom theory. At present the quantity p is quite undetermined. It could be determined by comparing the coefficients of viscosity and the conduc- tivity for heat of the gas, since these depend on the mean values of different powers of #8, and the ratio of such quantities evidently depends on p. In this paper I shall not consider the theory of the conduction of heat. If it were the same on the vortex atom theory of gases as on the ordinary theory, then the distribution of velocities would follow Maxwell’s law, as the values of the ratio of the coeffi- cient of viscosity to the conductivity deduced from this law agree fairly well with experiment. For this to be the case— or p—6, and the number of molecules which have the quantities 2 and # between a2 and a+éa, B and B+6f8 would be proportional to— eat) SO'dadB. History of the Kew Observatory. 37 “The History of the Kew Observatory.” By RoBERT HENRY Scort, M.A., F.R.S., Secretary to the Meteorological Council. Received and read June 18, 18385.* TxEr building, known by a misnomer of at least half a century’s date as the Kew Observatory, while it is really situated at Richmond, is erected on, or close to, a part of the foundations of a much earlier structure, the old Carthusian Priory of Jesus of Bethlehem. We learn from Crisp’s “Richmond” that “the ancient hamlet of West Sheen occupied that portion of land now knownas the Richmond Gardens, or Old Deer Park, and for the site of which hamlet or village we may perhaps take with tolerable correctness the present Observa- tory as the centre.” The Observatory is situated upon a low mound, which is apparently artificial. The central part of the building stands upon vaulting con- structed of bricks, differmg in character from modern ‘‘stock” bricks, being soft, red, thinner and narrower. Similar bricks are to be found in the walls of Richmond Palace (Crisp, p. 123), and such have been mainly used in the construction of the basement of the Observatory, up to the stone course. The basement is surrounded by three successive square rings of vaulting, of which the innermost is 5 feet wide by 8 feet high, the second 8 feet by 6 feet high, and the third and last 6 feet 6 inches by 5 feet high. This vaulting is constructed of bricks similar to those used in the upper part of the building, which resemble the bricks of the present day. Crisp’s statement, given above, is not absolutely exact, for the tono- graphical history of the plot of land bounded on the one side by the bend of the river, and on the other by the present high road from Richmond to Kew, the old “‘ Kew Lane” (see Fig. 3, p..46), is rather complicated. Three separate domains can, however, be recognised— 1. Kew Gardens. 2. Richmond Gardens. 3. The Old Deer Park. Of the three domains Nos. 1 and 2 were separated by a bridle path called ‘‘ Love Lane,” which started from West Sheen Lane near Richmond Green, and ran in a north and south direction to the Horse * T am indebted to the kindness of several friends for much assistance in the preparation of this history, particularly to Dr. E. W. Bond, of the British Museum, Mr. W. Thiselton Dyer, F.R.S., and to the members of the staff of the Observatory. —R. isle Ss. 38 | Mr. R. H. Scott. Ferry at Brentford. Nos. 2 and 3 were quite distinct, though con- tiguous to each other, whereas the above quotation from Crisp would convey the idea that the two names, Richmond Gardens and the Old Deer Park, were applied indiscriminately to the same area. 1. Kew Gardens lay to the east of Love Lane, they were the gardens of Kew House, of which Frederick Prince of Wales (son of George II) took a long lease from Mr. 8. Molyneux, his secretary, to whom it had passed by his marriage with Lady Elizabeth, grand-niece of Lord Capel. Mr. Samuel Molyneux, F.R.S., had erected an observatory in a wing of the house, in which he in the year 1725 made, with a telescope of his own construction, in conjunction with Bradley, the famous observations which, after his death, were continued by Bradley and proved the Aberration of Light. This was the original and real Kew Observatory. Kew House was taken down in 1803, and the present sundial on iis site erected by William IV, in 1832. The inscription on that dial* hardly gives sufficient credit to Molyneux, to whom, however, Bradley does full justice in Phil. Trans., Vol. XX XV, No. 406, p. 637. 2. Richmond Gardens were the gardens of Richmond Lodge, formerly Ormonde House; of this area 37 acres, including 12 taken from the Old Deer Park, are still in the occupation of the Royal Family. As Dr. Evans, in his ‘‘ Richmond and its Vicinity” (2nd Ed., 1825), says (p. 12), ‘‘ Richmond Gardens existed and were in the zenith of their popularity before Kew Gardens emerged into distinction.” 3. The Old Deer Park was the park of the same house, which stood between it and the gardens. As to the origin of Richmond Lodge, we have to go further back. Richmond Palace (or the Palace of Sheen, as it was called before Henry VII gave the village the name of Richmond) was the Sheen Manor House. It was situated on the south-west side of Richmond Green, near the river, and of it little remains save an archway with the Tudor Arms and parts of the outer walls. Hdward I made ita _ palace, and it continued so until the time of Charles I. Edward III, Henry VII, and Elizabeth all died there. Under the Commonwealth in 1650 it was sold, and after the Restoration was again in the hands of the Crown, and it had been mostly pulled down in the seventeenth * The inscription upon the dial is as follows :—‘“‘ On this spot, in 1725, the Rey. James Bradley made the first observations which led to his two great discoveries— the Aberration of Light and the Nutation of the Earth’s Axis. The telescope which he used had been erected by Samuel Molyneux, Esq., in a house which afterwards became a Royal residence, and was taken down in 1803. To perpetuate the memory of so important a station, this dial was placed on it in 1832, by command of His Most Gracious Majesty King William the Fourth.” _ Mistory of the Kew Observatory. 39 century. Ona part of the site the Duke of Queensberry’s house was built. Richmond Lodge, which inits turn became the Palace of Richmond, was apparently originally the Lodge of the Palace Park, the Old Deer Park. It was situated near the present Observatory. The gardens were in front of it, the park at the back. As regards the position of the Priory, I have learnt from Dr. Bond, of the British Museum, that all the recognised authorities agree in _ placing the Carthusian Monastery to the north or the north-west of the old Palace of Sheen. Crisp gives an engraving of the Monastery before its demolition, and in an engraving of a panoramic view of Richmond by Anthony van de Wyngaerde, dated 1562, a building resembling Crisp’s view is shown in the site of the Priory indicated in the subjoined map. s Library, British Museu. Cente of WSooF ect, f) oO oS SBN 6a og a gerd? ape? Sgp ha Nem |e AS 995 Fig. 1.—S1tE oF THE CARTHUSIAN Priory, Wrst SnereEn, crrcA 1730. From a Portfolio marked K, 46, 16 h, in the Kin 40 Mr. R. H. Scott. We now come to the original buildings on the actual site of ti. Observatory, and we find in Crisp the following statement :-— “It was in the year 1414 that Henry V, to expiate, as it has been said, the crime by which his family had attained to the crown of England, namely, the dethronement and murder of the unfortunate Richard IJ, founded here a ‘ famous’ religious house for forty monks of the Carthusian order, under the name of ‘ The House of Jesus of Bethlehem at Sheen,’ by which name it was incorporated, and one John Wydrington constituted the first prior. ‘‘ At the same time that Henry founded this noble priory, he like- wise built and endowed another one at ‘Syon’ on the opposite bank of the river, where the present Syon House now stands; this he dedicated to St. Bridget, for sixty nuns of that order.” Crisp says, ‘‘ There is in the British Museum an old work, in which mention is made of these two ‘relygious houses,’ and that ‘it is there stated they were founded for the reason that a constant succession of holy exercises should be kept up night and day to the end of time, so that when the devotions at one convent had been concluded, at the other they should instantly begin. ‘Shakespeare had learned from the works of old chroniclers and historians -the reasons given for the institution of these two (houses), as in his ‘Henry V’ he makes the mang prior to the battle of Agincourt, utter the following words :— *“¢ Not to-day, O Lord, O, not to-day think thou upon the fault My father made in compassing the crown! I Richard’s body have interred anew, And on it have bestowed more contrite tears Than from it issued forced drops of blood. Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay, Who twice a day their withered hands hold up Toward Heaven, to pardon blood ; and I have built Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests Still sing for Richard’s soul.’ “These buildings of Sheen and Syon were both of them stately edifices, and were as nobly endowed.” In 1541 the monastery, along with others, was suppressed.* * Extract from Archeologia Soc. Antiq., Lond., vol. xx, App. pp. 575, 576 :— “June 8, 1820. William Bray, Esq., Treasurer, exhibited to the Society an impression from the seal of the Carthusian Priory, which formerly existed at Shene, near Richmond, in Surrey ; appended to an indenture between John Bokyngham, prior of that house, on the one hand, and John and Joan Rede, of Lewisham, in Kent, on the other, respecting a garden or toft in East Greenwich, dated in the 22nd year of Henry the Sixth. “The impression of the seal is small, of an oval shape, and has a representation of the Adoration of the Shepherds in the area. At bottom are the arms of France and History of the Kew Observatory. Al Crisp says further: “It was in the year 1770* that the village or hamlet of West Sheen with the ancient gateway forming the entrance to, or rather part of, the priory, and eighteen houses with large pieces of ground attached, were pulled down, and the entire site converted into park or pasture land, as we now see it; but the antiquary to whom the records of such institutions as this ‘ House of Jesus of Bethlehem’ are so dear, while pondering over the changes which have taken place in Richmond, and observing how little we now retain of so much which has once existed here as the work of our Norman, Plantagenet, and Tudor kings, can but cherish a feeling of the deepest reeret at the total annihilation of the ancient priory buildings of Henry V at Sheen.” Richmond Lodge, or House (once occupied by Cardinal Wolsey), which stood at no great distance from the present Observatory, had been granted in 1707 by Queen Anne to the Duke of Ormonde, and partly rebuilt by him, in the year 1708-9, on the site of an old building which had hkewise borne the name of the Lodge for a long period of years. On the impeachment of the duke in 1715, he hastily left the country, and resided at Paris. Ormonde House was ap- parently unfinished at the time. The Harl of Arran, his brother, who purchased the property, then leased for the term of about ninety years, sold the lease to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II, of whom, both before and after his succession to the throne, it was a favourite place of residence, and even more particularly so of his queen (Caroline). From this cause a numerous circle gathered in and about the village and neighbourhood of Richmond, forming here the court of the reigning monarch. Here, in the garden appertaining to this lodge, took place the interview between Queen Caroline and Jeannie Deans, after her journey on foot from Hdinburgh to plead for the life of her sister Effie, which has been so graphically and so touchingly described by Sir Walter Scott in his “ Heart of Midlothian.” There is one passage in the dialogue which has a connection with the site of the Observatory, and that is Jeannie’s reply to the Queen when addressed in the following words :— “Stand up, young woman, and tell me what sort of a barbarous people your countryfolk are, where child murder is become so common as to require the restraint of laws like yours.” ‘Tf your Leddyship pleases, there are many places besides Scotland where mithers are unkind to their ain flesh and blood.” For as Crisp says, “It cannot be denied that the behaviour of Caroline had been unnatural towards her son; she seems to have England quarterly. The inscription round, when read at length, is—Sigillum Domus Shesu Christi de Bethlem Ordinis Cartusiensis de Shene.” * 1769, Evans. 4? Mr. R. H. Scott. hated him thoroughly and intensely—slighted his young and amiable wife—sided with his father, who upon all occasions behaved towards him with harshness and severity; and when on her deathbed the prince importuned to be allowed to see her, and sent her a most affectionate message, refused to have him admitted to her presence.” And therefore “of this famous Richmond Lodge, its magnificent gardens, the statuary and the numerous and singular buildings with which the Queen of George II had at such an extraordinary outlay enriched the place, the remains of the ancient monastery of Sheen, the large and embattled Gothic entrance, and the numerous houses still appertaining to the hamlet—we have now not a vestige left.” For ‘‘a few years after the accession of George III, the public, more especially of Richmond and Kew, were surprised to learn that it was His Majesty’s intention to pull down the whole of the buildings and convert the estate into a large pasturage for cattle, which intention was duly carried out.” “It was at the time asserted, and in that assertion there is no doubt much truth, that the young King so detested the memory of his grandmother, Queen Caroline, so cherished a recollection of the unnatural behaviour which she had always shown towards his late father, Frederick, Prince of Wales, that he took an earnest pleasure in destroying all that she had erected, or on which her taste and resources had been expended.” To return to the topographical description of the property. The Brentford Horse Ferry was superseded by the erection of the first Kew Bridge in 1759. In 1765 ‘cee III obtained an Act (6 George III) io the shutting up of Love Lane, undertaking in return to maintain Kew Lane, the present high road from eaeeeenel to Kew Bridge. This Act was apparently ineffective, for a further one was passed in 1784 (25 George WUD The Palace at Kew was the residence of Augusta Princess of Wales, mother of George III, and the Observatory attached to it fell into disuse. Accordingly, when the Transit of Venus occurred in 1769, facilities for observing it at the old Kew Observatory did not exist. This was pointed out to King George III (apparently by Dr. Demainbray), and he gave orders for the erection of an Observatory in the Old Deer Park, the architect being Sir William Chambers. This was known as the “ King’s Observatory,” and in a paper* by the late Major-General Gibbes Rigaud, it is further styled “the King’s Observatory at Kew.”’ Dr. Evans, however, calls it “The Royal Observatory,’ and speaks of it as being at Richmond. * “Dr. Demainbray and the King’s Observatory at Kew.’’—‘‘ The Observatory,” October 2nd, 1882. . History of the Kew Observatory. 45 The first Superintendent of the Observatory was Dr. Stephen Charles Triboudet Demainbray, descended from parents who had fled to London from France on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. This gentleman, after a varied career as a lecturer on science in various uniyersities and institutionsin these islands and in France, had settled in London as instructor in science to the King before his accession, and subsequently to Queen Charlotte. One point in his career shows the estimation in which he was held in France. I gather from General Rigaud’s paper, “In France (although not of the religion of the country) he was received as an ‘ Associé Ordinaire ’ and member of the Royal Academy; the only instance of a declared Protestant not being placed on the list termed ‘la Liste Etrangére.’ ” Al_b ria Fie. 2.—THre KrEw OBSERVATORY FROM THE SOUTH-WEST. Latitude 51° 28’ 6” N. Longitude 0° 18’ 47” W. When the new Observatory was finished, Dr. Demainbray adjusted the instruments there in time to make the Transit observation, and was its Superintendent until his death in 1782. George III frequently attended at the Observatory, and procured the best clocks and watches that could be made and placed them in the Observatory, so that by daily observations of the sun when passing the meridian, the time was regulated, and for many years the accurate time for the regulation of the clocks in both Houses of Parliament, at the Horse Guards, St. James’s, and elsewhere, was taken from the King’s Observatory, before the accommodation was so well and publicly afforded as it is at present from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. The clock which was the principal timekeeper at the 4A Mr. R. H. Scott. Observatory is now at the Patent Museum, South Kensington (No. 14.26), and is going well. It bears the following inscription :-— “This clock was made by Benjamin Vulliamy, Clock-Maker to the King, for his Majesty George III, by whom it was used in his private observatory at Kew. It was successively the property of their Majesties George IV and William IV, of H.R.H. The duke of Sussex, and of their Majesties Ernest, King of Hanover, and George, King of Hanover, by whom it was given to Frances Moulton, widow of Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy, eldest son of the maker, April 18th, 1854.” His Majesty King George III, with the assistance of Dr. Demain- bray, and his son the Rev. Stephen Demainbray (who held and superintended the Observatory, as the astronomer, for upwards of fifty-eight years after his father’s death) procured a large collection of instruments, models, &c., besides a large apparatus for experiments in all branches of natural philosophy, as also a very valuable natural history collection. In addition to these, there was a collection of minerals from the Hartz mines; but these were afterwards given by King George IV to the British Museum. The Observatory was for many years an object of great interest to King George III, and the Rev. S. Demainbray was for a length of time the teacher of the younger members of the King’s family, who attended at the Observatory for his lectures on astronomy, electricity, &c. King William IV also took great interest in the Observatory, and frequently visited it. — At the time of the transfer of the Observatory to the British Association, Mr. 8. Demainbray retired on a pension, and he died in July, 1854, at the age of ninety-five years. During the latter part of the fifty-eight years in which he super- intended the Observatory he was assisted by his nephew, Stephen Peter Rigaud, Hsq., Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and Radcliffe Observer. This gentleman took charge of the Observatory during the Oxford vacations, and thus enabled his uncle to reside during those periods on his living in Wiltshire. The King’s Observatory lasted, therefore, for seventy-one years, 7.e., from 1769 to 1840. The Observatory itself was at one time in charge of a curator named John Little, who was hanged in 1795 for the murder of two old people in Richmond to whom he owed money, and who was strongly suspected of having murdered a carpenter named Stroud, who was discovered in the principal or octagon room of the Observa- tory, the body lying under an iron vice. The St. James’s: Chronicle, in August, 1795, in giving an account of Little’s execution, says, “‘ from his civil deportment he was in general the only attendant on His Majesty when he walked in the gardens.” The inquest on Stroud at a previous date had resulted in a verdict of accidental death. We find in a French book, Simond’s ‘‘ Voyage en Angleterre,” 8vo, History of the Kew Observatory. 45 Paris, 1817, the account of an amusing episode in the astronomical studies of George III during the later years of his life. EXTRACT FROM SIMOND’s “‘ VoYAGE EN ANGLETERRE.” Paris, 8vo, 1817. “Le roi aime l’astronomie, et a un Observatoire dans un petit pare a Richmond, appelé ‘‘The King’s Paddock.” Ily aun grand télescope de Herschel; un instrument des passages (transit) de huit pieds de long, a travers lequel nous observames passant le meridien; un instrument vertical de douze pieds, pour les observations au zenith: un mural de huit pieds de rayon; un télescope equatorial, et plusieurs autres instrumens moins considerables ; quelques modeéles de machines, entre autres, une pour déterminer la pression latérale des votes; une collection de mineraux, et un cabinet d’instrumens de physique. “Sa Majesté étant venue a l’Observatoire, il y a quelques années, pour observer une occultation de planétes, un daim poursuivi de Windsor, traversa la riviére, franchit les palissades, suivi de toute la meute, et vint se laisser prendre au pied de Observatoire, précisément au moment de |’observation. “‘Je demandai si l’attention de Sa Majesté s’était montrée supe- rieure a cette interruption. On me répondit qu’un nuage, malheureuse- ment survenu précisément au méme instant, avait rendu l’observation impossible, et qu’autrement rien n’aurait pu l’en distraire.”’ The following would appear to be a correct account of the incident somewhat romantically treated in the above, as it was narrated by the late Sir James South to Dr. Balfour Stewart :— One day Sir James was at the Observatory with the King (George IIT) when they saw the stag hunt from Windsor approaching, and ascended to the roof to watch it. Concealed by the parapet His Majesty pointed out to Sir James the different gentlemen following the hounds, and at the royal dinner in the evening the King created considerable amusement by assigning to the guests the relative places they each occupied in the hunt, as they were unable to imagine what position of vantage His Majesty had occupied during the proceedings. With this the record of tlie first period of the Observatory comes to a close, and the building passed into the management of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, for the space of thirty years, till August 1871. The negotiations, which were carried out in connection with the establishment by H.M.’s Commissioners of Woods and Forests, in the first instance with the Royal Society, and in the second with the British Association, cannot be better described than in the following Memorandum drawn up in 1871 by Sir Charles Wheatstone, who himself, with Sir Edward Sabine and Mr. J. P. Gassiot, was among the original subscribers to the undertaking in 1842. The same three gentlemen, as Members of the Committee, 46 SMe BBL eee. continued their active superintendence of the Observatory during the whole period of its connection with the British Association. Tt will be seen that throughout this memorandum it is termed the Kew Observatory in all official documents. THE ROYAL GARDENS (ARBORETUM) - Fig. 3.—THE Krw OBSERVATORY AND VICINITY, 1885. 1. The Observatory and Garden. 7. St. John’s Church. 2. Syon House. 8. Richmond Station (Old). 3. The Queen’s Cottage. 9. i Pa (New). 4. The Pagoda. 10. Richmond Green. 5. The Lion Gate. 11. Richmond Palace (Site of). 6. The Entrance to the Observatory | 12. Richmond Bridge. (Fuller's Gate). History of the Kew Observatory. AT HISTORICAL REMARKS BY SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE. In 1841 the Government came to the determination of no longer keeping up the Observatory and Museum established by His Majesty George the Third in the Old Deer Park at Richmond. In consequence. of this resolution, the Curator and the Reader in Natural Philosophy, who had for many years been attached to the building, were pensioned off, and the valuable contents were distributed to the Armagh Obser- vatory, the British Museum, King’s College, london, the College of Surgeons, and some members of the Royal Family. The building being thus dismantled and vacant, was applied for by the Council of the Royal Society, on the recommendation of the Committee of Physics and Meteorology, as appears from the following Minutes of June 24, 1841 :— ‘Mr. Daniell reported, on the part of the Committee of Physics, that they had passed the following resolution, viz.:— “ pase 5 SNe a No ears yy eepe 1 adeliiice +’) haus i fee Hinde Ore oat trae 1 Toronto: 4s) | seeks Aa ate ae, eee se eS ai — MamGitigs’ "7 sees d Mae Ee Ta: Sa — oe. = fpmmssels! ("1 {ae | ee ar y Ras Cre Se he as Wi-Ka-Wei 9... A ap tee Led tess eee a Wdelaide fo) kk d Ia eos 1 Bae ees Se — Japanese Govt. ...... 2.22.8: se ee Sa ces == ione-Kone )...... Le Lee Se yada 1 isomlbaye no hin. AL Pisce Ly eearhs, Oe Sa: ae peydmey so kod. | rc ieee ae Se ae = Melbourne © 9) 1... | Bae re MAD papain — oleaaee — ipatewia) ) ) - . secoees Le coche lepers = isan 1 FTistory of the Kew Observatory. (6) D. List of VERIFICATIONS COMPLETED AT THE OBSERVATORY. Thermometers. 1852-53 ...... — 1853-54 ...... 181 1854-55 00... 2520 1855-56 ...... 530 RS56=57> .....: 1524 | Rctoy ons 268 1858-59 ...... 911 1859-60 ...... 222 1860-61 ...... 660 1861-62 ...... 282 FS62-03 »...... 296 1863-64 ...... 389 1864-65 ...... 420 1360-66 ...... 395 WS06-67. 2..:.. 608 1867-68 ...... 1138 PS68=69 ©... 1153 eves aeee eons eeee aoae aee.e 20 Barometers. Hydrometers. See = PSY ath ae Lk T2609) 5: Tae ca. LOO. ces 2S” Maine € (ne eee a a ee tS One Se cae see: D2 a. seeks WS ae en = gs oO ee acct Sashes a ht os ale Bae Ss PGi oil geet Con yaks Bt GOA nae = on (elo) ieee SS gee sg OE eee ae BOo ees = ase fOr-* Sea Se fan ume BO tae: eee Standard Therimometers made. 16 NUMBER OF INSTRUMENTS VERIFIED, &c., SINCE 1869. Surveying Instruments, &c. Mr. R. H. Scott. "SOSSLTD JURTKES pure ‘sopeog ‘siejamomeuy pue ‘sadoosaay, a ee ee ee i eee ea SS ‘s1oqaTOUlLD i) oO *SoqT[OposT, | , pease 4 Oe ‘squyixeg | if. See, Soe © 68 SoS eee “Soysiq Sureiodeayq °' | ; OA HO SHH AR OEaAA Tae N Cl — ee — Self-Registering Apparatus. ‘sosneyn uey! | | Sees eo | 2S ‘sqdercomery) "| Y of foi a 1 ol od. Teal ae sydeisoueg.y, | [co Ue) Ate eee a Cia] 4G =>: ea he Nas ‘sydersoregq |) | lo te domed | OPS. J ‘sydeisojouseyy | | |. ot aot | SP) |) Ul See “Om ‘SJOUSB]L ‘StoyouMOUT[IA raat || fe Sp Sl sleq woroapeq a = : » . a oO oO La e sosseduog| | | | o pe i Steere [eee S Ss x "a p g < EEL SL qders 1.3 Co 10 HO het SS poe v 2 . OJoUSeT puv surddiq o a op 8, XOT SH GQ’ iO 4D CO = 1) SO) es noe S pue ie dig = = ea ss oD s oD lor) onl st es} Lan! lor) its) co ite) 0 UN op Sy er er Re) Oo! r= abr go SG *sdoqouo01pA Ses Ore AS Oe SS Se —| . Nn t~ ~ So el foe) sYon) a Leal ol sH i=) nN SH ‘ spiny | Ss ok Sa a a A & ROS eee x o : S228 8 8 88 5 = 202 Sy | UOFeIS pue ouLIvyT | 4 ie hs ys, pe es pe eo 4 Se So q Gs P + oN os Oo — © © —- & O 190 x “prepuvsyg |, ao A oo = oa fF Oo tH + oS . 6 ~ fo?) oO by ie.e) oO st La amp ‘vag doag | 2 = oo eh OS eo St ee es ‘COljyeIpey Iejos CO OSD atau is Ot to I 275 2 8.8 Seas 6 2a yee ee 2 Lm WROLUTD) | ea St Fos I es IS ca yh) On Cn coe : ef Se ee) RN MN) eoy” 90) SH oo z 1 ® : Rie Gey GA ee Se ES SS! 2 peo Ba ees Giana eet Sat tee Oe o —! S) oe) wo ideo) t =a) co aD ie) E -[BOISOTO.LO9IO TL Se SS oes een ce (oo. 50.) to aaa ib) Areurp.1 ie) ee) NX ~ sH NX s+ Ma ORT SE Bang bale ye So fa 3 [pLO — SSeS eS 4 Ll onl al a ol tal A 5 I TSS o © pSoLsprepueis| A A os AN SS Db T S = & *poqyon..suop i aed aq Qa [oe] 2D (=) N st N Ld oO eal ~ (=) fSjowmzy OMIT || CS tests 4 a 4 oa oA = So om N inp) s ie) ike) = co lop) =) Lal nN oD sH | PGS aren eink omnes uerienuieeeni Seles Se Sy j=) i=) = N ioe) 4 its) ive) ~ oO lo) =) Lapel nN oD | CO Re oe Oe, ES oe ee a oO 2 |) foo pon oo ae 22) 22) 20 (22) ao [o0) [ee) fo a) co oO oO fo 2) Lee) 16 0) oO Lowa] et — Laon = eo =! La et ei et ci et ei a Flistory of the Kew Observatory. 77 K. olen OF PAPERS RELATING TO KEW OBSERVATORY. Adams, W. Grylls— Comparison of Curves of the Declination Magnetographs at Kew, Stonyhurst, Coimbra, Lisbon, Vienna, and St. Petersburg. Brit. Assoc. Rep., Li, 1880, pp. 201-209. On Magnetic Disturbances and EHarth-Currents. Brit. Assoc. Rep., LI, 1881, pp. 463-474. Beckley, &.— Description of a Self-recording Anemometer. Brit. Assoc. Rep., XXVIII, 1858, pp. 306, 307. Birt, W. &.— Report on the Discussion of the Electrical Observations at Kew. Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1849, pp. 1138-199. De la Rue, Warren— On the Total Solar Eclipse of July 18th, 1860, observed at Rivabellosa, near Miranda de Hbro, in Spain. Phil. Trans., 1862, pp. 333-416. Researches on Solar Physics. First Series. On the Nature of Sun- spots. Amer. Journ. Science, XLIII, 1867, pp. 179-192. Researches on Solar Physics. Second Series. Area Measurement ‘of the Sun-spots observed by Carrington during the seven years from 1854-1860 inclusive, and deduction therefrom. Amer. Journ. Science, XLII, 1867, pp. 322-330. Results of the Observations on Sun-spots made in Kew and in Dessau during the years 1867-68. Astron. Soc. Month. Not., XXVIII, 1868, pp. 44, 45; X XIX, 1869, p. 95. Sun-spots and general Aspect of the Sun on the day of the Total Helipse, 18th August, 1868. Astron. Soc. Month. Not., XXIX, 1869, pp. 3, 4. Summary of Sun-spot Observations made by the Kew Photo- heliograph during the years 1869-72. Astron. Soc. Month. WNjot XOXOX. 18705 py 605) DOOKIE 13871, pp. 79; 805 XX X11 1872, pp. 225, 226; XX XITI, 1873, pp..173, 174. De la Rue, Stewart, and Loewy— Researches on Solar Physics. First Series. On the Nature of Solar Spots. Roy. Soc. Proc., XIV, 1865, pp. 37-39; Phil. May., XXIX, 1865, pp. 237-239. Researches on Solar Physics. Second Series. On the Behaviour of Sun-spots with regard to Increase and Diminution. Roy. Soc. Proc., XIV, 1865, pp. 59-638; Phil. Mag., X XIX, 1860, pp. 890-394. 78 Joke Re El useotts Note regarding the Decrease of Actinic Effect near the Circum- ference of the Sun as shown by the Kew Pictures. Astron. Suc. Month. Not., XXVI, 1866, pp. 74-76; Phil. Mazg., XX XI, 1866, pp. 243, 244, Note on the Distribution of Solar Spotted ness: in Heliographic Latitude. Phil. Mag., XX XIII, 1867, pp. 79, 80; Astron. Soc. Month. Not., XX VII, 1867, pp. 12-14. Account of some recent Observations on Sun-spots made at the Kew Observatory. Roy. Soc. Proc., XVI, 1868, p. 447. Researches on Solar Physics. Heliographical Positions and Areas of Sun-spots observed with the Kew Photoheliograph during the years 1862 and 1863. (1868.) Phil. Trans., CLIX, 1869, pp. 1-110. Researches on Solar Physics. No. 2. The Positionsand Areas of the Spots observed at Kew during the years 1864, 1865, 1866; also the Spotted Area of the Sun’s visible Disk from the commencement of 1832 up to May, 1868. Phil. Trans., CLX, 1870, pp. 389-496; Phil. Mag., XL, 1870, pp. 53, 54; toy. Soc. Proc., XVIII, 1870, pp. 2638, 264. Further Investigations on Planetary Influence upon Solar Activity. Roy. Soc. Proc., XX, 1872, pp. 210-218. On some recent Researches in Solar Physics, and a law regulating the time of duration of the Sun-spot period. (1871.) Roy. Soc. Proc., XX, 1872, pp. 82-87, 290; Phil. Mag., XLII, 1872, pp. 385-390. On a Tendency observed in Sun-spots to change alternately from one Solar Hemisphere to the other. oy. Soc. Proc., XXI, 1873, pp. 399-402. Everett, Joseph D.— Results of Observations of Atmospheric Electricity at Kew Observatory and at King’s College, Windsor, Nova Scotia. Phil. Trans., CUVIII, 1868, pp. 347-361; Roy. Soc. Proc., XVI, 1868, pp. 195, 196; Phil. Mag., XXXIV, 1867, pp. 543, O44, Gassiot, J. P.— On the Adaptation of Bisulphide-of-Carbon Prisms, and the use of Telescopes of long focal distance, in the Hxamination of the Sun’s Spectrum. Brit. Assoc. Rep., XXXIV, 1864 (Part 2), pails On Spectrum Analysis, with a description of a large Spectroscope having nine Prisms, and Achromatic Telescopes of two feet focal power. (1863.) Phil. Mag., XX VII, 1864, pp. 143, 144. Description of a Train of Eleven Sulphide-of-Carbon Prisms arranged for Spectrum Analysis. oy. Soc. Proc., XIII, 1864, pp. 183-185 ; Phil. Mag., XXVIII, 1864, pp. 69-71. History of the Kew Observatory. 79 Description of a Rigid Spectroscope, constructed to ascertain whether the position of the known and well-defined lines of a spectrum is constant while the co-efficient of terrestrial gravity under which the observations are taken is made to vary. oy. Soc. Proc., XIV, 1865, pp. 320-326. On the Observations made with a Rigid Spectroscope by Captain Mayne and Mr. Connor, Second Master of H.M.S. “ Nassau,” ona voyage to the Straits of Magellan. (1867.) Roy. Soc. Proc., XVI, 1868, pp. 6-19. | Kew Committee (The)— Results of the Monthly Observations of Magnetic Dip, Horizontal Force, and Declination made at the Kew Observatory from April 1869 to March 1875 inclusive. Roy. Soc. Proc., XXIV, 1876, pp. 232-240. Rigaud, Major-General Gibbes — Dr. Demainbray, and the King’s Observatory at Kew. The Observatory, 1882, Vol. V, pp. 279-285. Ronalds, Sir F'.— Report concerning the Observatory of the British Association at Kew from lst August 1843 to 31st July 1844. Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1844, pp. 120- 142. On the Meteorological Observations at Kew, with an Account of the Photographic Self-registering Apparatus. Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1846 (Part 2), pp. 10, 11. Experiment made at the Kew Observatory on a new Kite- Apparatus for Meteorological Observations. Phil. Mag., XXXI, 1847, pp. 191, 192. On Photographic Self-registering Meteorological and Magnetic Instruments. Phil. Trans., 1847, pp. 111-117. Reports concerning the Observatory of the British Association at Kew. Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1849, pp. 80-87 ; 1850, pp. 176-186; 1851, pp. 335-370. Sabine, Sir L.— Report on the Kew Magnetographs. Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1851, pp. 320-328. On the Laws of the Phenomena of the larger Disturbances of the Magnetic Declination in the Kew Observatory, with notices of the progress of our knowledge regarding the magnetic storms. toy. Soc. Proc., X, 1859-60, pp. 624-631. On the Secular Change in the Magnetic Dip in London between the years 1821 and 1860. Roy. Soc. Proc., XI, 1860-62, pp. 144-163. Notices of some Conclusions derived from the Photographic Records of the Kew Declinometer, in the years 1858, 1859, 1860, aid 1862. Roy. Soc. Proc., XI, 1860-62, pp. 585-590. 80 Mr. R. H. Scott. Results of the Magnetic Observations at the Kew Observatory, from 1857-8 to 1862 inclusive. Phil. Trans., 1863, pp. 273-284. A Comparison of the most notable Disturbances of the Magnetic Declination in 1858 and 1859 at Kew and at Nertschinsk, preceded by a brief retrospective view of the progress of the investigation into the laws and causes of the magnetic disturbances. Phil. Trans., CLIV, 1864, pp. 227-246, Roy. Soc. Proc., XIII, 1864, pp. 247-252. Results of the Magnetic Observations at the Kew Observatory. No. 3. Lunar-Diurnal Variation of the three Magnetic Hlements. Phil. Trans., CUVI, 1866, pp. 441-452, Roy. Soc. Proc., XV, 1867, pp. 249, 250. Results of the first year’s performance of the Photographically Self-recording Meteorological Instruments at the Central Observatory of the British System of Meteorological Obser- vations (1869). Roy. Soc. Proc., XVIII, 1870, pp. 3-12. Records of the Magnetic Phenomena at the Kew Observatory. No. 4. Analysis of the, Principal Disturbances shown by the Horizontal and Vertical Force Magnetometers of the Kew Observatory, from 1859 to 1864. Phil. Trans., CLXI, 1871, pp. 807-320. Scott, Robert H.— Results of Observations made at the Pagoda, Kew Gardens, to determine the Influence of Height on Temperature, Vapour Tension, and Humidity. Qwuarterly Weather Report of the Meteorological Office, 1876. App., pp. [20 ]-[37]. Stewart, B.— On some Results of the Magnetic Survey of Scotland in the years 1857 and 1858, undertaken by the late John Welsh. Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1859, pp. 167-190. An Account of the Construction of the Self-Recording Magneto- graphs at present in operation at the Kew Observatory of the British Association. Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1859, pp. 200-228. On the great Magnetic Disturbance of 28th August to 7th September, 1859, as recorded by Photography at the Kew Observatory. Roy. Soc. Proc., XI, 1860-62, pp. 407-410; Phil. Trans., 1861, pp. 423-480. On the Magnetic Disturbance which took place on the 14th De- cember, 1862. Roy. Soc. Proc., XII, 1862-63, pp. 663-668 ; Phil. Mag., XX VII, 1864, pp. 471-475. An Account of Experiments on the Change of the Elastic Ferce of a Constant Volume of Atmospheric Air, between 32° Fahr. and 212° Fahr., and also on the Temperature of the Melting- point of Mercury. Phil. Trans., 1868, pp. 425-435. LMistory of the Kew Observatory. 81 On the Forces concerned in producing Magnetic Disturbances. Roy. Inst. Proc., IV, 1863, pp. 55-61. On the Sudden Squalls of 30th October and 21st November, 1863. oy. Soc. Proc., XIII, 18638, pp. 51, 52. On the Errors of Aneroids at various pressures. Brit. Assoc. Rep., XX XVII, 1867 (Sect.), pp. 26, 27. On a Self-recording Rain-Gauge. Brit. Assoc. Rep., XXXIX, 1869 (Sect.), p. 52. Preliminary Report of the Solar Physics Committee, on a » Com- parison for two years between the Diurnal Ranges of Maenetic Declination as recorded at the Kew Observatory, and the Diurnal Ranges of Atmospheric Temperature as recorded at the Observatories of Stonyhurst, Kew, and Falmouth. Roy. Soc. Proc., XX XIII, 1882, pp. 410-420. On the Velocity of Propagation between Oxford and Kew of Atmospheric Disturbances. (1864.) Brit. Met. Soc. Proc., M1865, prol: Note on the Secular Change of Magnetic Dip, as recorded at the Kew Observatory. (1866.) Roy. Soc. Proc., XV, 1867, pp. 8,9. Phil. Mag., XXXI, 1866, pp. 235-237. A Ghknkeiaori between some of the Simultaneous Records of the Barographs at Oxford and at Kew. Roy. Soc. Proc., XV, 1867, pp. 413, 414. Description of an Apparatus for the Verification of Sextants, designed and constructed by T. Cooke, and recently erected at the Kew Observatory. (1867.) Roy. Soc. Proc., XVI, 1868, pp. 2-6. An Account of Certain Experiments on Aneroid Barometers made at Kew Observatory at the expense of the Meteoro- logical Committee. oy. Soc. Proc., XVI, 1868, pp. 472- 480; Smithsonian Reports, 1868, pp. 350-353; Phil. May., XXXVIT, 1869, pp. 65-74. A Preliminary Investigation into the Laws regulating the Peaks and Hollows exhibited in the Kew Magnetic Curves for the first two years of their production. Roy. Soc. Proc., XVII, 1869, pp. 462-468. Results of the Monthly Observations of Dip and Horizontal Force made at the Kew Observatory from April 1863 to March 1869 inclusive. oy. Soc. Proc., XVIII, 1870, pp. 231-242. On the Variations of the Daily Range of Atmospheric Tempera- ture as recorded at the Kew Observatory. Roy. Soc. Proc., XXV, 1876, pp. 156-158 ; 1877, pp. 577-592. On the Variations of the Daily Range of the Magnetic Declina- tion as recorded at the Kew Ghent. er Soc. Prec., XXVI, 1877, pp. 102-121. VOL. XXXIX. G 82 Mrs Kis Scots: Note on the Inequalities of the Diurnal Range of the Declination Magnet as recorded at the Kew Observatory. Roy. Soc. Proc., XXVIII, 1879, pp. 241, 242. Stewart, B., and Brito-Capelio, J— Results of a Comparison of Certain Traces produced simultane- ously by the Self-recording Magnetographs at Kew and at Lisbon, especially of those which record the magnetic disturbance of 15th July, 1863. Roy. Soc. Proc., XIII, 1864, pp. 111-120. Description of the Magnetic Storm of the beginning of August 1865, as recorded by the Self-recording Magnetographs at the Kew and Lisbon Observatories. Brit. Assoc. Rep., XXXV, 1865 (Sect.), pp. 20, 21. Stewart, B., and Carpenter, W. L.— Report to the Solar Physics Committee on a Comparison between apparent Inequalities of Short Period in Sun-spot Areas and in Diurnal Temperature-ranges at Toronto and Kew. Roy. Soc. Proc. XX XVII, 1884, pp.. 290-816. Stewart, B., and Dodgson, W.— Note on a Comparison of the Diurnal Ranges of Magnetic Decli- nation at Toronto and Kew. Roy. Soc. Proc., XXXII, 1881, pp. 406, 407. Stewart, B., and Loewy, B.— An Account of the Base Observations madeat the Kew Observa- tory with the Pendulums to be used in the Indian Trigono- metrical Survey. Roy. Soc. Proc., XIV, 1865, pp. 425-439. An Account of Experiments made at the Kew Observatory for determining the true Vacuum- and Temperature-Corrections to Pendulum Observations. Roy. Soc. Proc., XVII, 1869, pp. 488-499. Stewart, B., and Morisabro, Hiraoka— A Comparison of the Variations of the Diurnal Range of Magnetic Declination, as recorded at the Observatories of Kew and Trevandrum. oy. Soc.. Proc., XXVIII, 1879, pp. 288-240. Stewart, B., and Roscoe, H. H.— On the Heat of Sunshine at London during the twenty-four years 1855 to 1874, as registered by Campbell’s method. Roy. Soc. Proc., X XIII, 1875, pp. 578-582. On the Heat of the Sunshine at the Kew Observatory, as registered by Campbell’s method. Brit. Assoc. Rep., LIII, 1883, pp. 414-418. Stewart, B., and Sidgreaves, W.— Results of a Preliminary Comparison of certain Curves of the Kew and Stonyhurst Declination Magnetographs. Roy. Soc. Proc., XVII, 1869, pp. 236-288. Ffistory of the Kew Observatory. 89 Stokes, G. G.— Discussion of the Results of some Experiments with Whirled Anemometers. toy. Soc. Proc., XXXII, 1881, pp. 170-188. Welsh, J.— On the Graduation of the Thermometers for the Arctic Searching Expedition. Roy. Soc. Proc., VI, 1850-54, pp. 183-188. Description of a Sliding-Rule for converting the observed Readings of the Horizontal and Vertical Force Magnetometers into Variations of Magnetic Dip and Total Force. Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1851 (Part 2), pp. 20, 21. Description of a Sliding-Rule for Hygrometrical Calculations Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1851 (Part 2), pp. 42, 43. Report of the General Process adopted in Graduating and Com- paring the Standard Meteorological Instruments for the Kew Observatory. Rvy. Soc. Proc., VI, 1852, pp. 178, 179. On the Graduation of Standard Mheraiomersrs at the Kew Observatory. Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1853 (Part 2), pp. 34-36. An Account of Meteorological Observations in four Balloon Ascents made under the direction of the Kew Observatory Committee of the British Association. Phil. Trans., 1853, pp. 311-3846 ; Annales de Chimie, XUI, 1854, pp. 503-507. Instructions for the Graduation of Boiling-point Thermometers, intended for the Measurement of Heights. Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1856 (Part 2), p. 49. Account of the Construction of a Standard Barometer, and Description of the Apparatus and Processes employed in the Verification of Barometers at the Kew Observatory. Phil. Trans., 1856, pp. 907-514. Whipple, G. M.— On the Temperature-Correction and Induction-Coefficients of Magnets. Proc. Roy. Soc., Vol. XXVI, 1877, pp. 218-222. On the Determination of the Scale Value of a Thomson’s Quadrant Hlectrometer used for Registering the Variations in Atmospheric Hlectricity at the Kew Observatory. Proc. Roy. Soc., Vol. XX VII, 1878, pp. 356-361. On the Comparison of the Standard Barometers of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and the Kew Observatory. Proc. fioy. Soc., Vol. XX VII, 1878, pp. 76-81. Results of an Inquiry into the Periodicity of Rainfall. Proc. Roy. Soc., Vol. XXX, 1880, pp. 70-84. On the Results of Comparisons of Goldschmid’s Aneroids. Quart. Journ. Met. Soc., Vol. V, 1879, pp. 189-191. On the Relative Duration of Sunshine at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and at the Kew Observatory during the year 1877. Quart. Journ. Met. Soc., Vol. TV, 1878, pp. 201-207. G 2 54 Mr. R. H. Scott. On the Relation existing between the Duration of Sunshine, the Amount of Solar Radiation, and the Temperature indicated by the Black-Bulb Thermometer in vacuo. Quart. Journ. Met. Soc., Vol. V, 1879, pp. 142-146. On the Relation between the Height of the Barometer, the Duration of Sunshine, and the Amount of Cloud, as observed at the Kew Observatory. Quart. Journ. Met. Soc., Vol. V, 1879, pp. 213-217. On the Rate at which Barometric Changes traverse the British Isles. Quart. Journ. Met. Soc., Vol. VI, 1880, pp. 136-141. On the Relative Frequency of Given Heights of the Barometer Readings at the Kew Observatory during the ten years 1870- 79. Quart. Journ. Met. Soc., Vol. VII, 1881, pp. 52-57. On the Variations of Relative Humidity and Thermometric Dryness of the Air with Changes of Barometric Pressure at the Kew Observatory. Quart. Journ. Met. Soc., Vol. VII, 1881, pp. 49-52. Results of Experiments made at the Kew Observatory with Bogen’s and George’s Barometers. Quart. Journ. Met. Soc., Vol. VII, 1881, pp. 185-189. Observations of Atmospheric Electricity at the Kew Observatory during 1880. Brit. Assoc. Report, LI, 1881, pp. 443-450. Composite Portraiture adapted to the Reduction of Meteorological and other similar Observations. Quart. Journ. Met. Soc., Vol. IX, 1883, pp. 189-192. Description of an Apparatus employed at the Kew Observatory, Richmond, for the Examination of the Dark Glasses and Mirrors of Sextants. Proc. Roy. Soc., Vol. XXXV, 1883, pp. 42-44. Preliminary Inquiry into the Causes of the Variations in the Readings of Black-Bulb Thermometers im vacuo. Quart. Journ. Met. Soc., Vol. X, 1884, pp. 45-52. Report on Experiments made at the Kew Observatory with Thermometer Screens of different Patterns during 1879, 1880, and 1881. Quarterly Weather Report of the Meteorologi- cal Office, 1880, App. II. pp. [13 |-[16]. Whipple, G. M., and Baker, T. W.— Barometric Gradients in connection with Wind Velocity and Direction at the Kew Observatory. Quart. Journ. Met. Soc., Vol. VIII, 1882, pp. 198-203. 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Com- municated by Professor T. G. BoNnnEy, D.Sc, F.RS. Received May 28, 1885. Read June 18. (Plates 1—4.}) Devitrification is a process which may either take place naturally or be brought about by artificial means. Instances of the former are familiar to us in once glassy rocks which have passed into a felsitic or micro-crystalline-granular condition. The change which has taken place in the conversion of obsidian into felstone is so great that it would not be possible to infer the original nature of the rock, were it not that certain structural peculiarities, often of a very delicate cha- racter, are retained. It is, indeed, a most remarkable feature in such rocks that a physical change so complete should fail to obliterate the perlitic structure and the fine streaky markings or fluxion-bands which are common in the vitreous lavas of every age. The microscopic recognition of such structures has of late years added considerably to our knowledge of the rhyolitic rocks and tuffs of Archean and Paleozoic times, many of which were undoubtedly hyaline rhyolites. Through devitrification their original character has been obscured, and in many instances can only be revealed by the use of the microscope. Although much has been written upon this subject, including Vogelsang’s admirable work,* we are still in compara- tive ignorance of the conditions under which such devitrification has taken place. The experiments .of Daubrée,t made upon glass tubes at a high temperature and pressure, in presence of water, resulted in the development of a schistose or foliated structure, corresponding with the cylindrical form of the tubes acted upon: the development in some cases of reticulating cracks, due to contrac- tion, the transformation of the glass into a friable substance with a structure both fibrous and concentric, and also into a hard material with similar structure. Professor Daubrée has likewise in these experiments produced radiating crystalline or spherulitic bodies, microliths, and aetual crystals of pyroxene and quartz. The glass upon which he operated contained, in its unaltered condition— * “Die Krystalliten.” Bonn, 1875, + “ Etudes Sj)nthetiques de Géolcgie Expérimentale,”’ p. 155. Paris, 1879. 88 Messrs. D. Herman and F. Rutley. oh 6 | palmiertertva sy Cara, oA 68 °4 CaO ieee ee (ce 120 MO), «oie, Sites pare Riepe 0°5 Nias Ooo sie ieeect 14°7 WAU OP waied ges) ence ee 4-9 100 °5 SSO. Ghee Speraeevenes 64: °5 CaO Nie ee eee er reas tae ys ay, BUS 0 MeO CAS 12 Ni ny a's nis wees ek 6°3 AIS. os a tasaieais © 1 ‘4 1s 0 Ra as ara meat ga: fa 99°5 The observations recorded in the present paper refer to structures developed in specimens of glass which, for the most part, were pre- pared, and all devitrified, at the Glass Works of Messrs. Pilkington Bros., St. Helens, and it is possible that they may have a special interest for those who are studying the natural devitrification of obsidians or other glassy or glass-bearing rocks, since in the cases here recorded the precise conditions of devitrification are known, while in the natural process we do not know the precise conditions. We may, however, assume with considerable safety, that within certain limits there will be a more or less close analogy between the results of the natural and artificial devitrification, allowing of course a margin for certain natural conditions which it would be difficult if not impossible to reproduce experimentally. Thinking that some definite laws might be arrived at by devitrifying solids of various forms, we have operated upon cubes, hexagonal prisms, trigonal prisms, spheres, cylinders, flat plates, and other distinct forms, and these we shall first describe. The difficulties attendant upon the microscopic examination of such materials consist principally in their excessive opacity in some cases, and in others upon the readiness with which the substances disintegrate during the process of grinding. The latter difficulty has In many instances been successfully overcome by Mr. Cuttell, by whom most of the sections have been carefully and admirably cut, so that the boundaries of the solids are preserved without injury. Specimen No. 115 originally formed part of a 1-inch-thick piece of plate-glass, which was accidentally coloured green, during fusion, by Microscopie Characters of Devitrified Glass. 89 a small quantity of ferruginous material. The plate, measuring about 6 feet by 3 feet 8 inches, was devitrified in the following manner. A layer of sea sand, previously washed, sifted, and dried, was spread to a depth of 25 inches on the floor of a kiln used for annealing glass- house pots. On this sand the plate was carefully bedded and covered with more sand to a depth of 6 inches, the whole being kept together by a low brick wall. The object of bedding in sand was to prevent the bending and fusion of the plate when the kiln attained its highest temperature. The kiln was then lighted, and the heat slowly raised. In six days it had attained a dull red, and in six days more was at its full heat, a very bright red, sufficient to soften, but not enough to melt, the glass through its covering of sand. This temperature was maintained for twelve days, when the kiln was Jet out, and quickly cooled by opening the door. The mass of sand, however, retained its heat for a considerable time after it was possible to enter the kiln, for, on removing the dwarf retaining wall four days after the door was opened, the plate broke in consequence of cold air coming in contact with one of the edges, whilst the other parts were at a com- paratively high temperature. The glass was thus in the kiln altogether for twenty-eight days, during six of which it was gradually heated to dull redness, during six more the temperature was increased to bright red, maintained at this for twelve days, and cooled during four. It was found to be thoroughly devitrified, and large pieces were ground with sand and water to a fine smooth surface on both sides, by which the thickness was reduced to seven-eighths of aninch. The portion selected for microscopical examination was broken off a corner of one of the large pieces. It is opaque, dull, and porcellanous externally on the ground surfaces, in places which have not been ground the surface is rougher, and has a glazed appearance. The parallel faces are of a pale green colour with a reticulation of white lines, enclosing areas which range from about ~, to + inch in diameter, mostly poly- gonal in form. The specimen was of irregular triangular shape, and the sides and edges formed by cracks, probably produced at an early period of the heating process, are of a uniform greenish-white or pale greenish-grey tint. ‘The hardness appears to be slightly greater than that of the same glass before devitrification, upon which it produces feeble scratches. A cross fracture, revealing the devitrified interior, shows very delicate, slightly undulating bands, which agree in direc- tion with the parallel faces of the plate, and the alternate bands, when viewed in this direction, exhibit a silky lustre like that of chrysotile, satin-spar, and other fibrous substances, only rather feebly. At the marginal extremilies of this fractured surface similar bands are seen running in a direction at right angles to the others, and these transverse bands occupy two triangular areas, as shown in fig. 1. 90 Messrs. D. Herman and F. Rutley. Fre, 1. In order to ascertain more precisely the nature of this structure, three sections were cut :-— A, at right angles to the parallel faces of the plate. B, parallel to one of the parallel faces of the plate, and including between the planes of section little more than the greenish superficial layer with the white reticulations.* C, parallel to one of the short sides, passing through one of the tri- angular areas near one of the angles, so that the section includes both sets of bands, cutting one set transversely and lying parallel to the other. These sections exhibit the general structure admirably when held obliquely m different directions between the eye and the light. The folowing is a description of their microscopic characters :— Specimen No. 115, Section A. When viewed by ordinary trans- mitted light under a low power, the banding already deseribed is indicated by transparent or very translucent belts, alternating with bands of very feeble translucency. Both kinds of belts are traversed by fine lines, indicating a fibrous crystalline structure, which cora- monly shows a radiate arrangement, the divergent groups of fibres emanating from centres situated on or ahout the margin or edges of the section.f Each radiating group has what may be termed its own allotment, bounded by well-defined straight lines. The boundary of one side of an allotment sometimes consists of a single straight line, at others of two or more straight lines, meeting in very obtuse angles. The boundary lines are not curved. When the section 1s rotated between crossed Nicols, these allotments form a well-marked and im- portant feature. The divisional lines in this section may be separated into two groups. The first group consists of five lines, viz., a median line, running parallel to the two parallel faces of the plate- glass, and four lines which form a bifurcation at either end of this median line, and enclose the terminal triangular areas. The second group of lines consists of those boundaries of the crystalline allot- * This layer is not the original surface, 5}, of an inch having since been ground off. + It must, however, be noted that the margin of the section lies about 3; of an inch from the origina! surface, the }; of an inch hav-ng been removed by grinding. Microscopie Characters of Devitrified Glass. oF ments which run approximately at right angles to the surfaces which constitute the boundaries of the devitrified specimen. In polarised light the general aspect of the section is peculiar, and strikingly resembles a patchwork rug made of the skins of tabby cats. Further on we shall endeavour to account for this brindled appearance, which is represented in fig. 1, Plate I, as seen between crossed Nicols. The vertical edge of the section seen on the right of the field is the trace of one of the parallel faces of the devitrified plate-glass. The N.W. portion represents part of one of the terminal triangular areas, while the remainder shows some of the other crystalline allot- ments. Specimen No. 115, Section B. This is a particularly interesting section. It is in fact one of the green surfaces of the devitrified plate-glass, 7.e., present surface, ~; inch of glass having been ground away, and we can easily trace in it the polygonal structure already alluded to. Between crossed Nicols the polygonal areas are sharply defined and are irregularly clouded with crystalline aggregates, which appear dark. On rotating the section through 90° these dark aggregates become light, while the previously light portions become dark; we are, in fact, looking on the ends of bundles of crystalline rods. These polygonal areas are the cross sections of fasiculi of divergent crystals, and the boundaries of these polygons are shrink- age cracks, giving rise to a columnar structure, while the columns, like those of basaltic lavas, have their longest axes normal to the cooling surface. Fig. 2, Plate 1, shows the general appearance of this section, magnified eighteen linear, between crossed Nicols. Ass it seemed possible that greater amplification might afford more information concerning the nature of the little crystals which constitute these bundles, a +-inch objective was used, with the result shown in fig. 3, Plate 1. Only dark hazily-defined spots could be discerned between crossed Nicols, which became light on revolution of the section, while previously light portions became dark. The section has, in fact, the appearance of what is known as crypto-erystalline structure, and resembles, to a certain extent, some of the felstones, which, from other evidence, are known to have been once vitreous lavas. An examina- tion of this section proves then that the polygons are the cross sections of the erystalline allotments of Section A, and that those allotments are longitudinal sections of polygonal, often pentagonal, prisms. Whether or not the polygonal jointing is connected with the crystalline developments, which it sheaths and separates, is a matter open to discussion. "The Section B, when held between the eye and candle flame, presents the illusive appearance of being studded with concayities or convexities, from which it, we think, may be inferred that the radiate arrangement of the crystalline fasiculi originates at or about the centre of each polygonal area on the original surface of 32 | Messrs. D. Herman and F. Rutley. the thick plate-glass.* If so it is possible that the strain consequent on crystallisation may have produced the prismatic fission. Fig. 1, Plate 3, might then be taken to represent portion of the surface of | the slab at the commencement of devitrification, the dots indicating primary centres of crystallisation, while fig. 2 on the same plate would represent the development of prismatic structure by the forma- tion of cracks between and around these centres of crystallisation. Fig. 3, Plate 3, shows one side (the lower one) of the block, fig. 2 the arrow denoting the direction in which the crystallisation advances. Apart from any hypothesis concerning the possible relation of the prismatic structure to the crystallisation, which may or may not be true, since it is possible that the prismatic structure was developed first, it is evident from the inspection of such a diagram that we may have a section giving prisms of very different widths, the width in section not necessarily representing the actual width of the prism, while in such a case the centre and general axis of the crystalline bundle may appear to be thrown on one side of the prism. Specimen 115, Section C. This section truncates one of the ter- minal triangular wedges, of which mention has already been made, so that here we know for a certainty that we are looking on the cross section of the crystalline fasciculi belonging to the triangular area, and here we meet with precisely the same phenomena as those described and figured for Section B. On either hand the adjacent crystalline bundles emanating from the upper and under surfaces of the thick plate are seen lying in the plane of section, 1.e., we are looking at longitudinal sections of those bundles. In these we again see the cat-like brindlings. On the broken and partly ground away edges of this part of the section, a power over 500 linear shows that the crystalline bundles are made up of small fibres or microliths, closely packed side by side. The section is in all parts traversed by long, fusiform, or acicular brownish microliths, which lie with their longest axes in various directions, but usually across the general directions of crystallisation. The brindled appearance in the crystalline bundles of these sections suggests at first sight the idea of pauses in the crystallisation, but when we find that by ordinary illumination the light is very faintly transmitted along these lines, some further explanation seems need- ful, and it seems probable that in these diverging crystallisations there is a kind of cone-in-cone or divergent composite structure, such as in that met with in the kidney-ore variety of hematite, or in clay-iron- stone, the apices of the cones giving rise to a turbidity and being ranged so as to form successive arcs of approximately concentric circles, as indicated in fig. 6, Plate 3. From the evidence afforded by * The surface of this specimen is 1, of an inch from the original surface, which has been removed by grinding. Microscopic Characters of Devitrified Glass. 93 the sections now described, it seems certain that devitrification has in this instance commenced at the surface, and has proceeded inwards in directions at right angles to the different surfaces. Owing to its uniform rate of progression, the different sets of crystalline fasciculi have met along lines which divide the devitrified mass in a remark- ably symmetrical manner, as shown in fig. 5, Plate 3, which represents one corner of the slab. That unequal rate of progression would cause a deviation from this symmetry 1s shown diagrammatically in fig. 4, Plate 3, and actually in the deflection of the diagonal line in fig. 1, Plate 1, Section A.* Specimen G is a plate of flashed glass, about 24 mm. in thickness, which has been completely devitrified under conditions similar to those described for Specimen 115, that is to say, it was imbedded in silver sand (previously washed and dried), placed in a kiln, and the temperature gradually increased during a period of eleven days up to a bright red. This heat was maintained pretty steadily for eleven days more, after which the kiln was quickly cooled, and the glass withdrawn. The flashed surface is of a deep blue colour, and is incrusted with grains of sand. The opposite face is mottled with small dull green and greenish-white spots, and has a surface like coarse glazed pottery. Flashed glass was chosen in this case, as it was thought possible that some of the pigment might be carried inwards by the crystallisation. This, however, does not seem to have taken place to any great extent, for on examining a thin section taken at right angles to the broad surface of the plate under a power of 250 linear, the blue layer is seen to have remained on the surface, although its boundary is ill defined, and the bluish tint extends for only a very little distance inwards, gradually fading away. On the outer surface of the coloured layer there has, however, been a considerable dis- turbance of the blue glass, which appears to have been fused, and to have run between the sand grains against which it was bedded, ff, Plate 2, fig. 2, forming a cement of blue crystalline sheaves. The crystalline structure of the blue layer is throughout very irregular, consisting of similar sheaf-like aggregates and interlacing crystals. Passing from this layer we find the contiguous glass converted into radiating crystalline groups, separated by sharply defined joint planes, * Supplementary Note.—Specimen 115. Thermal conductivity appears to be uniform on the large parallel faces of the plate, both at the margin and at a distance from the margin. The isothermal curves are also circles on the sides of the piate at right angles to the large faces. On a transverse section of the plate which traverses the crystalline fasciculi in directions both longitudinal and transverse, as in Section C, the wax also melts in circles both on the area of the longitudinal and on that of the transverse sections. ‘This accords with the statement of M. Ed. Jannettaz (‘‘ Propa- gation de la Chaleur,” “ Bull. Soc. Géol. de France,” 3° Serie, t. ix, p. 200) that minérals having a fibrous or lamellar character do not conduct heat better in the direction of the fibres or of the lamelle than if they had no such structure. 94 Messrs. D. Herman and F. Rutley. i). Plate 2, fig. 2, which traverse the plate normal to the large parallel surfaces. These joints are evidently the boundaries of polygonal prisms, and it is the ends of these prisms which cause the green and white spotted appearance on one surface of the specimen, while the reason that no such marking is visible on the other surface is partly due to the screen of sand grains which covers it, while beneath there would be no such markings until we reached the layer of originally white glass, because the joints do not appear to traverse the irregu- larly crystalline blue layer. Divergent crystallisations, also bounded by prismatic joints, start from the green spotted surface of the plate, and the two sets of divergent crystallisations meet in an undulating line, Zl., Plate 2, fig. 2, which approximately divides the plate into two plates of about equal thickness. The joint planes on the opposite sides of this line do not coincide, and the halves of the plate if sepa- rated along the surface, of which this undulating line is the trace, would doubtiess present a mammillated appearance. The general structure reminds one of that of part of a much flattened chalcedonic geode. It will be seen that in this specimen the devitrification has taken place on precisely the same principle as in the thick plate pre- viously described. There has been a prismatic structure developed normal to the bounding surfaces, divergent crystallisation occurs within the prisms, and these crystalline fasciculi advanced in opposite directions until they arrested one another, but the line of arrest in this case is sinuous, while in the preceding specimen the lines of arrest are straight. On examining the section under a power of 50 diameters, fine lines, like small scratches, are seen to cut across the divergent crystallisation. Under much higher powers they appear as rod-like microliths, and they lhe with their longest axes in all directions, but mostly transverse to the divergent fibres. Specimen I is part of a completely devitrified square prism of plate- glass. The devitrification of this specimen was brought about by two separate operations. The whole of the prism, about 4 inches in length, was bedded in silver sand and heated during four days to a temperature gradually increasing from that of the atmosphere up to a red heat, maintained at that for two days more, and then quickly cooled. When cold it was broken in two and found to be regularly | devitrified to a depth of about 14 mm., the interior being unaltered. One of the halves was then burnt again, this time for the same period and under exactly the same conditions as Specimen G, 1.e., bedded in sand, brought gradually to a bright red, maintained steadily at that heat for eleven days, and then quickly cooled. .The faces are of a pale greenish-yellow, have a glazed appearance like that of pottery, and are traversed by a network of very fine cracks. When the specimen is held before a strong light these surfaces present a spotted appear- ance, similar to that seen on the plane surface of other devitrified iy “ae Microscopie Characters of Devitrified Glass. 95 solids. Under the microscope it is seen that the crystallisation has advanced as usual from the surfaces inwards. After passing through a distance of about 1} mm. from the surface there has been a pause, marked by a fairly well-defined line, indicating the extent of the devitrification produced by the first heating to a red heat. This line is not straight, but has a series of slight convexities directed inwards, each convexity being bounded by joint planes normal to the surface. The prism therefore had first of all a devitrified envelope, the inner surface of which was mammillated, and each mammillation was the termination of a small prism. As the crystallisation advanced from the inner surface of this envelope, a fresh series of less numerous joints was developed, giving rise to a coarser prismatic structure, and between these joints we see in section a beautiful divergent crystal- lisation, each divergent group originating on the imner surface of the first crystalline envelope, a single prism sometimes containing only one such group. at others several. The general direction of these prisms is normal to the surfaces of the devitrified specimen, and the lines of arrest would join the opposite angles of the square section, were it not that in this particular slice am irregular pentagonal area occurs, against four of whose angles the lines of arrest abut. This irregular pentagon is a transverse section of another set of divergent erystallisations, whose longest axes would diverge from the axis of vision, and they evidently emanated from one of the basal planes of the large devitrified square prism, or from a transverse fracture as the prism was broken across after the first heating. Had the specimen been a cube, a section taken parallel to two of its faces and passing accurately through the centre of the cube,.wouid merely have shown two continucus lines:of arrest joining opposite angles and intersecting in the centre of the square secticn, assuming, of course, that the crystallisation advanced equally from all six faces. Such a structure would divide the cube into six equal four-sided pyramids, as indicated in the diagram, Plate 3, fig. 7. In the specimen before us the crystal- lisation has advanced rather irregularly, and the lines of arrest are consequently not continuous straight lines, but continuous series of straight lines, a repetition,.in fact, of the conditions indicated in the diagram, fig. 4, Plate 3. Specimen H is portion of a similar square prism of plate-glass, heated gradually for six days toa red heat under exactly the same conditions as the first operation on Specimen I. It differs from the preceding specimen in having been devitrified for only a slight distance from the surface. A section of the crust through one of the angles presents an appearance precisely similar in character to that of the crust of Section EH, (a six-sided prism), figured on Plate 2. These are groups of divergent crystals which pass from the surface inwards, and are separated by prismatic jointing. The inner surfaces of each 96 Messrs. D. Herman and F. Rutley. crystalline group is convex, the convexity being directed towards the interior of the solid. When magnified between 500 and 600 diameters these convex surfaces are seen to be fringed by the projecting termi- nations of the divergent crystalline fibres. Specimen K. This is part of a completely devitrified trigonal prism of plate-glass, devitrified by two operations, under precisely the same conditions as Specimen I, and the section has been taken parallel to the basal plane. The general principle of devitrification elucidated by the examination of the preceding specimens may also be clearly recognised in this case, but the crystallisation, after the first envelope was formed, advanced in a somewhat irregular manner, which needs interpretation. The irregularity in the crystallisation of this specimen may be attributed to the fact that there is a flaw init. The general structure is shown in Plate 3, fig. 8. Here we notice first of all the envelope or devitrified crust, due to the first heating operation, in which there is prismatic structure and a series of divergent crystal- lisations trending inwards. Next comes a similar but coarser series of prisms also normal, or approximately normal, to the sides of the trigonal prism, and in these the divergent crystallisation has also travelled from without inwards. So far there is no deviation from the general principles of devitrification which we met with in the pre- ceding specimens, in fact the crystallisation has proceeded inwards as usual, in directions approximately normal to the limiting planes of the devitrified solid. We now meet, however, with an apparent exception to the general rule, for the three sets of crystalline fasciculi, instead of continuing their course until they arrest one another in three straight lines joining the angles and the centre of the triangular section, are suddenly arrested and enclose an area rudely shaped like a three-rayed star, this being subdivided into three irregular portions. The deltoidal areas are traversed by cracks, and from points along these lines we have groups of crystals diverging on both sides of the lines. They have consequently travelled from within outwards. The different areas of devitrification are by no means symmetrically disposed. Diagram, fig. 8, Plate 3, shows, with approximate truth, how the parts of the actual section really occur. It will be seen on reference to this figure, that at the point a there is a crack which extends in a curve towards b. From a point on the curved line ab, about opposite to the middle of the edge in which the crack a occurs, another nearly straight crack passes to c, and from the inner surface of the devitrified crust a third crack extends in a curve from the little fissure a to the point d. The crystallisations diverge on both sides of these three cracks. They are bounded by prismatic joints, which are continuous across the cracks, and each pair of crystalline fasciculi diverges from a common centre situate on the crack and between a pair of prismatic joints. These three distinct areas of crystallisation Microscopic Characters of Devitrified Glass. 97 are very irregular in form, and this has already been attributed to the presence of the flaws emanating directly and indirectly from the fissure. There appeared to be no reason why in such a solid the devitrification should not proceed steadily inwards until the three sets of prisms arrested one another along three lines passing from the three angles of the triangular section, and meeting in its centre. With a view to settling this point another trigonal prism (Specimen No. 143), free from any flaws, was devitrified. A transverse fracture through this devitrified prism shows three distinct and similar areas of crystallisation ; each is an isosceles triangle. These triangular areas are bounded by the three sides of the prism and by three straight lines of arrest, which accurately join the centre or axis of the prism with its three angles or edges, fig. 9, Plate 3. This demonstrates conclu- sively that the irregular devitrification seen in Section K is due to simultaneous crystallisation along flaws. Specimen D heated twice under same conditions as Specimens I and K, is part of a completely devitrified six-sided prism of plate-glass. The surface has a glaze like that of pottery. The transverse section of the prism is not a perfect hexagon, and it has not been cut quite at right angles to the principal axis. There is a well-marked crust of divergent crystalline fasciculi due to the first short heating, prismatic joints being also present, but they are not well defined. Devitrifica- tion has then proceeded inwards in directions approximately normal to the lateral faces of the prism in broad divergent crystalline groups, separated by joint planes, which preserve at the best a very imperfect parallelism. In fact the prismatic structure which they indicate seems very irregular, and in the section a prism is often represented by a lanceolate or an irregularly shaped area, while the divergent crystal- lisations do not all seem to be formed in directions parallel to the plane of section. These crystallisations show brindled markings, similar to those seen in Specimen No. 115. There is strong chromatic depolarisation in this, as also in the preceding Sections I and K. Specimen EH is part of a six-sided prism of plate-glass, 2 cm. in diameter, which has been devitrified to a depth of barely 15 mm. under precisely the same conditions as Specimen H. The devitrified crust 1s yellowish-white, and has a glazed surface like that of pottery. Two sections have been cut from this specimen, E being taken transversely to the principal axis, and E, parallel to it and to one of the faces of the prism. The latter section consists, in fact, only of the devitrified crust of one of the faces of the prism. Section H, taken transversely to the principal axis of the six-sided prism, shows a devitrified crust, which by reflected light looks white, while by transmitted light it appears under the microscope of a brown or yellowish-brown tint. It consists of divergent groups of very delicate acicular crystals, but even under high powers their termina- VOL. XXXIX. H 98 Messrs. D. Herman and F. Rutley. tions, where they shoot into the unaltered glass, cannot be clearly made out. In most cases their terminations appear to be rounded, while in others they have a rectangular aspect, suggestive of a basal plane or an edge normal to the principal axis. The groups are not separated by prismatic joint planes, but the divergent crystals of adjacent groups appear to slightly overlap. The directions of extinc- tion indicate that they are possibly rhombic forms. When magnified about 570 diameters the individual crystals seem frequently to consist of linear aggregates of minute globulites, but this appearance is possibly deceptive, and in some cases the crystals exhibit no such structure. The terminations of the crystals pass rather irregularly into the adjacent glass, giving the edges of the crystalline groups a fringed aspect somewhat like the pile of velvet. The adjacent glass shows colourless spheroidal specks or globulites. Section E, is taken parallel to one of the faces of the six-sided prism, and is, indeed, a shaving of the devitrified crust. Mr. Cuttell succeeded in making a section the full size of the face, and from this the drawing, fig. 1, Plate 2, was made. In this drawing a basal and lateral edge are shown, and it will be seen that from these edges divergent groups of crystals pass inwards. With the exception of this fringe, which represents more or less oblique sections of the zrystalline groups which constitute the devitrified crust, the re- mainder of the face shows only a polygonal network, the polygons being the cross sections of prisms. It has, in fact, the same structure as the margin, only the crystalline groups are in this part cut trans- versely to the direction of their growth, while at the margin they are cut obliquely, for the section being taken a little distance inwards from the surface of the face trenches slightly upon the crystalline groups of the adjacent faces, both lateral and basal. The section as originally cut was so feebly translucent that an endeavour was made to reduce its thickness. This, however, resulted in its almost total disintegration along irregular cracks without materially increasing its translucency. Specimen F. This is a completely devitrified sphere of light- coloured bottle-glass 18 mm. in diameter, devitrified in two operations under the same conditions as Specimens I, K, and D. Under the microscope a section taken through the centre of the sphere shows a somewhat irregular circumference, which is accounted for when the surface of the original specimen is carefully examined, for it is seen to be pitted with numerous small cavities, and to have a rough fritted and imperfectly glazed aspect. The irregularities of this surface are due to the impressions of sand-grains, a few of which may still be detected adhering to the surface. The glass has evidently undergone incipient fusion, and the crystallisation im the immediate neighbour- hood of the sand-grains is very small and confused. This irregularly Microscopie Characters of Devitrified Glass. 99 crystalline margin is bounded internally by a sinuous crack, showing the extent of the devitrification produced by the first heating to which the specimen was subjected, while other irregular cracks traverse this portion circumferentially as a rule, but they sometimes pass through the margin radially. The latter are few, penetrate but a short distance, and are mostly fringed by delicate crystalline fibres normal to the crack, and usually terminate in a radial group of fine acicular crystals or fibres. In one or two spots the cracks are seen to follow the contours of small cavities, from which sand-grains have been stripped in the process of grinding the section. Inside the wavy circumferential crack the crystallisations have shot inwards in long divergent groups, which towards the middle portion of the sphere give place to large irregular radiating groups of crystals, so large, in fact, that there does not appear to be more than half-a-dozen of them in the section, and these are in most instances cut through in a plane remote from their centres, thus giving oblique and transverse slices through the crystalline rods. Had these groups been able to erystallise freely they would have resulted in spherules, and this, indeed, might have been the case had the devitrification of the sphere been incomplete ; as it is, they seem to have rudely polygonal boundaries. The devitrification of this specimen seems in part to be of a micro-crystalline-granular character under a magnifying power of 18 linear, but under a power giving an amplification of 570 diameters this is seen not to be the case, the mass being resolved into a closely matted aggregate of little acicular crystals with a general tendency to radiate grouping, as shown in fig: 4, Plate 1. In fig. 5 on the same plate the general aspect of a portion of the sphere at and near the margin is shown. The circular hole near the margin is where a sand-grain, around which the glass has fused, has been stripped out in grinding. Specimen No. 78 is portion of a large hemispherical mass of com- pletely devitrified sheet-glass taken from a mass of many tons which burst from the furnace in the liquid state and ran into a ‘“‘ cave” underneath. ‘The mass solidified rapidly, but owing to its great bulk remained at a high temperature for several days. In the specimen there is a fragment of uncombined lime, indicating that at the spot from which the specimen was taken the fusion of the raw materials composing the glass was not quite complete. This specimen exhibits @ curious and very rough concentric scaly or platy structure. It is of a pale greenish-white tint, and the broken surfaces are covered with small glistening hair-like crystals. It feels rough to the touch lke a piece of unglazed porcelain, which it rather resembles, and it has a distinctly vesicular structure. The vesicles are spherical. In thin section it is very feebly translucent, and consists of a mat of minute groups of radiating crystals. The aspect of the surface of a H 2 100 Messrs. D. Herman and F’. Rutley. roughly broken piece of this specimen magnified four diameters is shown in fig. 5, Plate 2. Specimen No. 105 is a piece of plate-glass 12 mm. in thickness, having the uneven surface usual in plate-glass before it has undergone the process of grinding. Devitrification in this case has given to the glass the appearance technically known as “‘ burnt,” and it was brought about in the ordinary process of annealing owing to the kiln being too hot. The glass was in the stiff, pasty condition suitable for rolling when introduced into the kiln, and was kept at a bright red by flame playing almost directly upon it for about half an hour, during which, and possibly during a short period of subsequent cooling, the devitri- fication was effected. The devitrification of this specimen is quite incipient, and affects merely the two parallel surfaces, one of which is uneven and scratched owing to contact when in a soft condition with the rough bed of the kiln. This latter surface is extremely interesting, as it shows a reticulating series of irregular cracks, traversed in places by straight belts of spherules which are apparently in no way connected with the cracks, and begin and end abruptly in a@ seemingly capricious manner, fig. 4, Plate 2.* The cracks are similar to those produced in glass by heating it and plunging it in water. Other isolated and larger spherules are also to be seen upon both surfaces of this specimen. Fig. 3, Plate 2, shows one of these surfaces—the upper, as seen by ordinary transmitted light, and magnified 32 linear. The shaded spots represent incipient spherules which fail to show any depolarisation ; the darker spots are decided spherules with strong depolarising power. The unshaded portion of the section also transmits light between crossed Nicols, and is therefore in a state of strain. Under a magnifying power of 1150 diameters the incipient spherules can merely be resolved into brownish granular patches, sometimes approximately round, not uncommonly dumbbell- shaped, or like two coalescing spheres, but usually they are of irregular form, and their general aspect is nebulous. Specimen L. A piece of pale greenish sheet-glass transferred, when in the semi-fluid state suitable for working, to a small pot in which it was maintained during four or five hours at a temperature barely sufficient to permit of its being “gathered.” It is traversed by rudely parallel, irregular, flocculent, milky bands. Under a power of about 250 diameters numbers of minute crystallites are visible; they show no double refraction. Some are stellate, others fusiform or acicular. The latter are often wholly or partially surrounded by fine dusty segregations, which frequently seem to be diminutive divergent spicules. The most common forms have the aspect of monoclinic or * This specimen closely resembles some of the spherulitic obsidians of Montana, U.S. Compare this figure with fig. 5, Plate XX, “Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe.,” vol. xxxvVil. Microscopie Characters of Devitrified Glass. 101 triclinic crystals. Their angles vary considerably ; one gave ]50°, another 116°, but these measurements are of little value, as it is doubtful whether the individuals measured were lying parallel with the planes of section. Some of these forms are shown in fig. 6, Plate 2, not represented as they are actually grouped in the prepara- tion, but selected from various spots. They closely resemble some of the crystallites met with in the slags of blast furnaces. They occur in the white turbid bands in the glass, the transparent portion being almost free from them. Specimen M is a piece of clear sheet-glass, about 2°5 mm. thick, from a pot containing somewhat less lime than usual. Owing to the furnace being rather cold during the time the glass from this pot was being worked, devitrification in the form technically known as “‘ambitty ” set in, and increased to such an extent that blowing was stopped and the pot emptied by lading. ‘The specimen was blown shortly before the ladling operation was commenced; it contains a few very beautiful crystallites similar to those figured in Plate 8 of Vogelsang’s “ Krystalliten.” One of them, which closely resembles one of the usual forms of snow-crystals, being a skeleton hexagon or six-rayed star, gives angles of 60° between the component crystalline needles. These exhibit double refraction, and undergo extinction in directions parallel to and at right angles to their longest axis. Between crossed Nicols depolarisation from strain is visible in the adjacent glass, the minute brushes of light being more intense about the points of the principal needles. It would appear from the depolarisation and directions of extinction that this crystallite may be referred to the rhombic system, twinned somewhat after the manner of chrysoberyl. This seems the more probable, since some of the forms in Section L also resemble certain rhombic forms. The crystallite just described is seen when examined under a power of about 280 linear to be traversed by an irregular network of strong cracks lying in the same plane as the crystallite, and extending nearly to but never beyond its margin. In the centre of the crystallite is a dark spherule. The fact that the reticulating cracks are restricted to the area occupied by the crystallite indicates a relation to the latter, and the depolarisation of the adjacent glass indicates strain. Since this strain-depolarisation only occurs at the margin of the crystallite, we may infer that the strain is connected with its development, and the cracks are no doubt the result of this strain. Had the body been a completely developed crystal and not a skeleton form, the strain would probably have resulted in the development of a perlitic crack, and not in a reti- culating series of cracks which possibly arise from strain about a number of points. Another crystallite in the same piece of glass is very different in appearance to that last described; its general out- line is that of an irregular hexagon. It is traversed by four well- 102 Messrs. D. Herman and F. Rutley. marked crystalline rods, apparently composed of piles of octahedra like those of alum, and where they touch the margin of the crystal they usually pass beyond it, forming little spicular crystallisations like fir-trees or like the crystals formed in cast iron. They throw out branches at right angles to the main spicule. The crystallite is also traversed by other crystalline rods of a like character, but at right angles to the first set, and these also pass out in little fir-tree-like crystallisations. There are also small rods which run in two direc- tions obliquely to the former, and which intersect in an angle of about 87°. The form therefore is not cubic, as might at first sight be thought. The larger spicule also show double refraction. There is some depolarisation in the glass around this crystallite due to strain, but no cracks are developed. The spicule extinguish parallel to and at right angles to their longest axes. At least they appear to do so, but it is difficult to tell, and the colour difference is so slight when a Klein’s plate is employed that it is impossible to speak with any certainty on this point. On the whole we are inclined to regard these crystallites as belonging to the rhombic system. The one last de- scribed is a twinned form, and exhibits several re-entering angles. A rough sketch of it (fig. 2) is appended. Fie. 2. Microscopic Characters of Devitrified Glass. 103 Generalisations. From the microscopic examination of the specimens already described,* it seems evident that the devitrification of solids of the nature described in this paper takes place in a definite and apparently uniform manner, to which Specimen No. 105 is no excep- tion, for the incipient spherules and the well-developed spherules are but rudimentary phases of the divergent groups which we generally meet with, and which have been already described. In Specimen 105 they are essentially superficial, and we can imagine them as hemi- spheres, as represented in fig. 3, ready, as devitrification advances, to be continued inwards, in which case we cease to recognise their spherulitic Fie. 3. character. In solids free from flaws the devitrification appears then, as a rule, to consist in the development of divergent groups of crystals, the divergence being usually limited by a network of minute joints, which give rise to small polygonal prisms. These crystals and joints extend inwards from the different faces of the solid, and may or may not ultimately meet. The crystalline groups in their respec- tive prisms are banded by arcs of circles, which we may assume are related, but perhaps obscurely, to the initial pseudo-spherulitic struc- ture of the superficial crust of the solid. These arcs indicate succes- Sive stages of growth. The crystallisations from the different faces ot the solid ultimately, in small masses, arrest one another, and devitrification is then complete. In the case of the sphere, Speci- men F, already described, the process has gone on in much the same * With the exceptions of Specimens 78, L and M, in which devitrification was produced during cooling from the fluid state, and Specimen 105, which was probably still somewhat soft when devitrification commenced, all the specimens described were devitrified whilst in the solid state by more or less prolonged periods of heating. se 104 Messrs. D. Herman and F. Rutley. manner for aslight distance from the surface, after which an irregular crystallisation has been set up from independent centres; but it should be remarked that difference in the chemical composition is known to influence the mode of procedure, as well as the character of the devitrification. The direction of the prismatic structure always seems to be approximately normal to the surfaces, and the divergent sheaves of crystals advance from the surface inwards by successive growths within the prisms. It seems quite possible that in the absence of such prismatic jointing the whole mass would become spherulitic, or would consist of an irregular felted mass of crystallites. The near resemblance which some of the specimens just described bear to devitrified and partially devitrified obsidians shows how close the structural relationship is, and that, allowing for difference in the conditions under which the process takes place, the principle of devitrification is the same. Specimen No. 122d, a piece of ordinary sheet-glass, which was bedded in white sand and heated during a period of only four days to a temperature gradually increasing from that of the atmosphere up to a blood-red—a temperature somewhat lower than that employed for any of the specimens previously described, shows purely superficial devitrification by the development of globulites and spherules or spherulitoid crystallites, like fig. 11, Plate 3. In this particular crystallite, which is of a pale brown colour, no structure can be made out. It seems merely to consist of an aggregate of globulites, but in other cases bodies of precisely similar form show a decided radiating crystalline structure, like that. of the brown spherules, which occur with them in the same specimen, the only difference between these crystallites and the spherules consisting in the external form or limit- ing surface. It is for this reason that we propose to call them spherulitoid crystallites. Fig. 10, Plate 3, drawn from the same piece of glass, shows part of the network of cracks by which the surface is cut up, and the curious manner in which the globulites have segre- gaved along these cracks, so as to leave the fairiy well-defined circular and oval spaces in which the globulites are less densely packed. Spherules sometimes occur within these clearer areas, but the latter do not seem to have any necessary connexion with the development of the spherules. In Specimen No. 1220, superficially devitrified under the same con- ditions as the preceding, a tendency to the formation of perlitic structure is seen around some of the spherules. Specimen 126, a piece of rough plate-glass, $ inch thick, bedded in white sand, contained in a small fire-clay pot, and placed in a kiln, the temperature of which was gradually raised during a period of 83 days, by which time a dull red heat, about 650° C., was attained. As it was known by comparative experiments with similar pieces of Microscopie Characters of Devitrified Glass. 105 glass contained in other pots in the same kiln, that no appreciable change had taken place in the glass up to this time, we propose to reckon, in this and subsequent experiments, what may be called the active period of devitrification, from the first attainment of 650°, neelecting altogether the time required to bring the specimen up to this temperature, which necessarily varies in different cases, and is known to be without appreciable effect on the glass. The pot containing Speci- men 126 was withdrawn from the kiln 29 hours after its first attaining the temperature of 650°, by which time the heat had slightly increased. The pot with its contents was allowed to cool during about four hours, when the glass was removed from its covering of sand, which had cooled down almost to the atmospheric temperature. This specimen shows devitrification only on the surfaces, the alteration being so slight that writing can be clearly read through the glass when it is placed close over it, but when raised an inch above the writing the latter appears blurred and illegible. The devitrification, which is quite incipient, consists in the segregation of vast numbers of minute granules and globulites about various points ou the surface of the glass, and in very many cases small stellate crystallites lie in the midst of these segregations. They are colourless and translucent, but too small to show any double refraction, even if they possess the property. Under an amplification of 120 linear the specimen shows portions of its surface which are still quite clear and unaltered. The margins of the unaltered areas show some fine nebulous segregations which envelope no crystallites, but the majority contain the stellate forms already alluded to. Of these, the simplest form is a four-rayed star _or cross, the arms of the cross being apparently at right angles, but most of these crystallites are many-rayed, as shown in fig. 13, Plate 3, which was drawn with a magnifying power of 820 linear. On the top and left hand margin of this drawing portions of a crack are shown, and on certain parts of the surface of this specimen the nebulous and crystallite-bearing spots are separated by a network of irregular cracks. Specimen 127, a piece of polished plate-glass, ? inch thick, treated in the same pot as Specimen 126, and under exactly the same con- ditions. This is another instance of incipient and purely superficial devitrification. The general appearance is somewhat like that of No. 126, but in this case, although a few imperfectly developed spicule are present, there are no distinct stellate crystallites, possibly because in glass of this kind, containing a considerable quantity of lime, stellate crystallites do not occur so frequently as in the quality represented by Specimen 126, and the alteration of the glass consists merely of delicate nebulous spots, which under a power of 820 linear are seen to be composed wholly of globulites, and this is the most rudimentary phase of devitrification touched upon in this paper. 106 Messrs. D. Herman and F. Rutley. The little nebulous patches are mostly circular in form, and these circular patches often coalesce. There are a few instances in which the globulites occur within sharply defined circular or approximately circular boundaries, but for the most part the nebulous patches shade gradually away into the glass. One of these patches magnified 820 diameters is shown in fig. 12, Plate 3. The structure fore- shadowed in this and in Specimen 126, may be regarded as spherulitic.* Specimen No. 147 is especially interesting on account of the per- fect manner in which it demonstrates that devitrification takes place from the surfaces of a crack, just as from any other surfaces. The * A very interesting example of a like structure, but on a much larger scale, is seen in a specimen of obsidian collected by Mr. John Arthur Phillips, at Hot Springs, near Little Lake, in California. The obsidian is black and contains several greyish-white, or yellowish-white, spheroidal bodies (lithophysen of Richthofen), which range up to an inch in diameter. These, when examined carefully, are seen to consist of numbers of small spherules, about 5 of an inch in diameter, but many of still smaller dimensions. The minute spherulitic structure of these large spherules is best seen on weathered surfaces, but even on fractured surfaces the spherules may still be seen, though their spherical character is less clearly visible, owing to inter- stitial matter, which becomes removed by weathering. In these larger spherules there is evidence, though obscure, of a radiating structure. The mimicry of the little spherules built of globulites, in Specimens 126 and 127, by these large spherules built of little spherules, in the obsidian, is very striking, but it is quite probable in the latter case that the smaller spherulitic structure was set up in the large spherule after its formation, the vestiges of a radiating crystalline structure tending to confirm this view. Weathered surface of large spherule. Obsidian. Part of iarge spherule in obsidian from Hot Springs, near Little Lake, California. i LUPO IOV SOC, VGlesa lal. INSETS SecA . cece Flat a one x78. N°M5 Nicole + Sec. B. x Z50 Nicols -- | | oe, . . Ord. Trans. Lt | ; 2 * on a) was Ord. Trans. Tht West Newman & Co, lith, L39PL3. ts Niet | a. i : ‘Proe Roy. Soc.Vo ow D a Nae a : ¢ s . Frank Futley del. West, Newman &Co hth. — SE — j ay ep) SS) Proe, Hoy. Soc. Vol. é, Nak : ' =ih rg | Pee i ° eee eS an 3 eens : ' 4 ae A ees Sy eat hese nerds See ree eS) SR a ra en orate eS 4 } x { 5 = ¢ 3 = 2 ~ i i a \ 2 \ = =n | Nat.size. Nat .size. re Ce ee Fracture eats Fractured surface along Hes line BB. Slz 1 aa. ae Tah ppt? al 7 | ee i i (2) Tr crs ver Ss e& a uw < et } :| : 8 < A es A ; y < t P A oman ere nAin nya ARN etna aetna NA, Ss aN es Pee eee desert Spmevaeet-we erynsobarinorve pects awn tsi: PS , : a) ay! bs .*; y . * > =. oe) 4 oes : ’ Pe " ’ -¥ ; af ; ‘d iy 4 3 ey 2} ‘ : ‘ Pek i 4 z > a ¥ . Microscopic Characters of Devitrified Glass. — 107 specimen is a slab of 3-inch British plate, about 4 inches by 3 inches in diameter, and upon one of its surfaces a straight cut or scratch, about 2 inches long, was made by a diamond, producing an exceed- ingly fine crack, extending at the edge of the plate to a depth of over 4 inch in a direction approximately normal to the surface upon which the scratch was made, and gradually dying out to the end of the diamond cut. The crack was sufficiently fine to show Newton’s rings. The specimen was then completely devitrified by heating continuously for nine days at a bright red heat, a temperature considerably higher than was employed in the case of Specimen 126, 127, and it was subsequently cracked across in the direction of the line marked BB in fig. 1, Plate 4. Fig. 2 represents the fractured surface. At each end are the usual triangular areas, formed by lines of arrest, but the line of arrest which usually joins the apices of these triangular areas is here interrupted by another series of crystal- lisations which have emanated from the crack produced by the diamond scratch. In the half of the plate nearest to the scratched surface we have, indeed, a reproduction of what has taken place at the outer edges of the plate, the result being a nearly equilateral triangular area of crystallisation, bisected by the crack already men- tioned. This crack, however, passes a little beyond the median line of arrest, and from its termination the crystallisation radiates and ends against a curved arrest line, as shown in fig. 2, Plate 4. That devitrification does not always proceed in the orderly and uniform manner seen in Specimens 115, 147, and, indeed, in nearly all of the examples already described in this paper, will be best realised by reference to the figures of Specimens Nos. 132 and 136 on Plate 4, figs. 4 and 5. Fig. 3 in the same plate, Specimen No. 137, is a small slab of glass partially devitrified. The crust has been formed in the usual way by crystallisation proceeding from the surface inwards, but the process has been arrested, and where the outer crust is broken away a core of somewhat cracked but perfectly clear glass is seen, in which no spherules or other crystalline bodies are visible. In Speci- mens 132 and 136, however, the result has been different, for after a shght external crust has been formed, devitrification has also started from numerous points within the glass, giving rise to a well- marked spherulitic structure. Why these spherules have been formed instead of a gradually increasing crust is a matter which we hope to explain in a subsequent paper. 108 Dr. W. Huggins. THE BAKERIAN LECTURE.—“On the Corona of the Sun.” By Witu1am Huaains, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S. Received June 11, 1885. Read June 11, 1885, Tlepi S€ tov ypovov, dv év TH “ENAGOt eveorrovdalev, emeixe TOV ovpavoy Stoonpia ro.aitn, Tov Tov “HXlov KuKAov mTepicAO@v orépapos, c€oiKas “Ipidt, THY akTiva nuaupov. Philostratus, ‘ Life of Apollonius,” bk. vill, ch. xxii (ed. Leipzic, 1709). "AAAG trepupaiverat tis avyl Tmept THY trvy, adK E@oa Babeiay yiverOar THY oKLaV Kal akparov. “ Plut. Opera Mor. et Phil.,” vol. ix, p. 682 (ed. Leipzic, 1778). The sun is the only star the corona of which we have been able to observe, for all other stars are too distant to give true images in the telescope. If the sun were removed to a distance equal to that of the nearest star, its disk would subtend less than the one-hundredth of a second of arc. We have also to consider the small relative brightness of the corona, the ight from which has been estimated at different times to be from zg5455 to about the z5g555 part of the sun’s light. It is, indeed, possible that stars which have a higher temperature than our sun, are surrounded by corone of greater extent and bright- ness. At the eclipse of 1882, some information was obtained of the sun’s condition in relation to that of the brighter stars. The photographs of the more refrangible part of the spectra of stars, which I had the honour to lay before this Society in 1879,* gave a clue by which the stars could be arranged in a serial order, at the head of which stand the bright stars Vega and Sirius. I ventured to suggest that the differences in their spectra might be due primarily to temperature ; and even to make the further suggestion, that the hotter stars were probably the younger stars, and that we had obtained possibly some indications of the relative ages of the stars. The position of the sun came some distance down in the series, very near the position of Capella, and just above the stars which begin to show a yellow tinge in their light. In the ordinary solar spectrum it is difficult to distinguish the ultra-violet group of hydrogen lines, upon the character of which this serial arrangement was mainly based, but in the photograph of the spectrum of the corona obtained during the Egyptian eclipse, Captain Abney and Professor Schuster have been able to recognise very thin bright lines corresponding to the lines of this group.t These lines were not due to the corona, but to * “Proc. Roy. Soc.,” vol. 30, p. 20; also “ Phil. Trans.,” vol. 171, p. 669. + “Phil. Trans.,” 1883, p. 267. On the Corona of the Sun. 109 prominences at the base of the corona. ‘The thin condition of these lines, as well as the breadth of the lines of calcium at H and K, confirms the position which I had ventured to give to the sun relatively to some of the brighter stars, namely as belonging to the least fervid of the white stars, and just above those which begin to show a yellow light. There are indeed some stars in the spectra of which the line D, which is seen in the prominences, and in the lower parts of the corona of the sun, appears as a bright line, but this may be due to gas below any true corona, which may be about these stars. There are also the so-called nebulous stars, which are surrounded by an aureole of faint light of measurable angular extent, butit would seem more probable that these belong to, and should be discussed with, the clusters and nebule, and should not be regarded as exhibiting a corona of the nature of that which surrounds the sun. So far then as our present powers of observation go, the corona of the sun stands alone; it is therefore the more to be regretted that the observations of this object are beset with great and peculiar difficulties. The absorption and scattering of the sun’s light by our atmosphere, amounting according to Professor Langley to nearly 40 per cent.,* which are essential to the maintenance of the conditions under which life, as it now exists, is possible upon the earth, comes 1m, in this case, so seriously to our disadvantage that the corona can be seen for a few minutes only at long intervals. It is only on the rare occasions when the moon coming between us and the sun cuts off the sun’s light from the air at the place where the eclipse is total, that we can see the corona through the cone of unilluminated air which is inshadow. On an average once in two years, for from three to six minutes, the corona is visible, and then only over a very narrow strip of the earth’s surface. It is not surprising that many attempts have been made to observe the corona without an eclipse. The earlier attempts were based upon the hope that if the eye were protected from the intense direct lightof the sun, and from all light other than that from the sky immediately about the sun, the eye might become sufficiently sensitive to perceive the corona. In the later attempts, success has been sought for from the great diminution of air-glare which takes place at high elevations, when the denser and more dusty parts of the atmosphere are left below the observer. Professor Langley made observations on Mount Etna, and also on Mount Whitney, 15,000 feet high. He says:—‘I have tried visual methods under the most favourable circumstances, but with entire non-success.” Dr. Copeland, assistant to Lord Crawford, observed at Puno at a height of 12,040 feet. In his report he says: —‘“It ought to be mentioned that the appearances produced by the illuminated atmosphere were often of the most tantalising description, * “ Amer. J. of Science,” September, 1884. + Copernicus, vol. 1ii, p. 212. 110 Dr. W. Huggins. giving again and again the impression that my efforts were about to be crowned with success.” The spectroscopic method by which the prominences may be seen without an eclipse, fails for the corona, because a small part only of the coronal light is resolved by the prism into bright lines, and of these lines no one is sufficiently bright and coextensive with the corona to enable us to see the corona by its light. Let us look at some of the conditions of the problem. As the obstacle to our seeing the corona consists of the bright screen of illuminated air which comes in before it, it is of importance to consider the relative degree of brightness of the air-glare, under favourable conditions, to that of the corona behind it. During the eclipse of 1878, Professor J. W. Langley found the apparent brightness of the coronal light at 1’ from the limb of the moon to be six times greater than that of the full moon, but at 3’ distance, the light to have fallen off to one-tenth of the light of the full moon.* Professor Harkness concludes for the same eclipse :—(1.) The total light of the corona was 3°8 times that of the full moon, or 0:0000069 of that of the sun. (2.) The coronal light varied inversely as the square of the distance from the sun’s limb. (3.) The brightest part of the corona was 15 times brighter than the surface of the full moon. (4.) The corona of December 12, 1870, seems to have been 7} times brighter than that of July 29, 1878.+ In his report on the eclipse of 1883, M. Janssen says :—‘‘ Cette ex- périence a montré qu’a Caroline lillumination donnée a été plus grande que celle de la pleine lune.” t The chief point of importance for this inquiry lies not so much in the actual value of the coronal light as in the relation of that value to the brightness of the illuminated air near the sun. Many observers have borne testimony to the continued visibility of the corona for some minutes (from three minutes to twelve minutes) after the end of totalty. The observations which give to us direct information on this point are those which have been made of the planets Venus and Mercury when they come in between us and thesun. It is obvious that as the planet approaches the sun it comes in before the corona and shuts off the light which comes from it. Under these circumstances the observer sees the sky in front of the planet to be darker than the adjoining parts, that is to say, the withdrawal of the coronal light from behind has made a sensible diminution of the brightness of the sky. It follows that the part of the sky about the sun, behind which the corona is situated, and to which its light is added, is brighter than * Washington Observations. Reports of Solar Eclipses, 1878 and 1880, p. 214. + Ditto, p. 392. { ‘Annuaire pour l’An 1884”’ (B. des Longitudes), p. 875. On the Corona of the Sun. 11! the adjoining parts, in a degree not far removed from the eye’s power of distinguishing adjacent areas which differ by a small degree of brightness. If, therefore, by any method of observation even a small advantage could be given to the coronal light as compared with the air-glare, and, especially, if, at the same time, we could by any method accentuate the small difference of illumination, a method might be found by which the corona could be observed. When the report of the photographs taken during the Egyptian eclipse of 1882 reached this country, I was led to conclude that the coronal light as seen from the earth was strong in the violet, and probably to some extent also in the ultra-violet part of the spectrum. Apart from the question of the greater relative intrinsic intensity of the more refrangible region of the coronal light as a whole, or of any one of its components (its gaseous component gave bright lines in the violet region), there are two considerations which show us that the coronal light should be strong in the violet as compared with the air-glare near the sun. | The selective absorption of our atmosphere would cause the light scattered by it in the near neighbourhood of the sun to be relatively poor in this part of the spectrum; but there is a second cause acting in the same direction, which arises from the selective power of absorp- tion of the sun’s atmosphere. . The absorption which the photospheric light suffers from the solar atmosphere has been investigated by Professor Langley, Professor Pickering, and especially with great minuteness by Professor H. C. Vogel. Vogel found that while at the edge of the sun’s disk the red hght was reduced to 30 per cent. of its value at the centre of the disk, the violet light was reduced to 13 per cent. Vogel sums up by saying that if the solar atmosphere were removed, the brightness of the violet part of the sun’s ight would be increased about three times, but the red light one and a-half times only.* The selective action would doubtless be more strongly marked beyond the visible limit. The rapid increase of absorption near the sun’s limb, in Vogel’s observations, indicates a low and dense solar atmosphere. Professor Langley agrees in this view of the sun’s atmosphere. He says, “‘ The portion of the (sun’s) atmosphere chiefly concerned in absorption, I have been led to believe, from several considerations, is extremely thin, and I am inclined to think is mainly identical with the reversing layer at the base of the chromosphere.”’ Professor Hastings also considers the “layer which produces absorp- * “Spectralphotometrische Untersuchungen.” ‘ Monatsbericht der K. Ak. d. Weissenschaften.” Berlin, Marz, 1877. Also “‘ Ueber die Absorption der chemicale wirksamen Strahlen in der Atmosphire der Sonne,” ¢did., Juli, 1872. 112 Dr. W. Huggins. tion to be very thin,” but he prefers to regard this layer as consisting not of gas, but of “a thin smoke-like envelope of precipitated material.”* Professor Pickering assumes the existence of an absorb- ing atmosphere about equal in height to the sun’s radius, but we shall see further on that there are reasons which make this supposition extremely improbable. ) The light emitted by the corona, whether by the incandescent particles or by the gas mingled with them, which lies outside the low region of absorption, will not have been subjected to the same selective absorption as the photospheric light which is emitted below this region. For this reason the light emitted by the corona will be richer in the more refrangible rays than the sun’s light before it enters our atmosphere, and will be in a still larger degree richer in these rays than the solar light which has been scattered by our atmosphere near the sun. These considerations led me to hope that if the corona were observed by this kind of light alone it would be at some advantage relatively to the air-glare which comes in before it. It was of import- ance at the same time to magnify the smali advantage the coronal light might have by some method of observation which could bring out strongly minute differences of illumination. Such a power is possessed by a photographic surface. I took some pains to satisfy myself ‘“‘that under suitable conditions of exposure and development a photographic plate can be made to record (strongly) minute differences of illumination existing in different parts of a bright object, such as a sheet of drawing paper, which are so subtile as to be at the very limit of the power of recognition of a trained eye, and as it appeared to me, those which surpass that limit.” + * “ Constitution of the Sun,” “ Amer. J. of Science,” vol. xxi, p. 33. + “Proc. Roy. Soc.,” 1882, p. 411. Professor Stokes has suggested the following method of increasing the intensity of that part of the coronal light which is polarised relatively to the glare from the sky. He says in a letter, which he permits me to add here :—‘‘ The light of the corona is known to be strongly polarised, while the atmospheric glare would show no sensible polarisation. Let p be the intensity of the coronal light along any radius vector which is polarised radially, and gq the intensity polarised tangentially, and let 2a be the intensity of the glare. Then, without polarising the light, the intensity of the coronal light relatively to the glare would be as p+ q to 2a. Suppose now the light falling on the plate to be polarised, say, in a north and south plane. Then north and south the ratio of the coronal light to that of the glare would be increased to p to a, while in east and west directions it would be reduced to qg to a. In north-east and south-west as well as in north-west and south-east directions, the ratio would be the same as without polarisation. If in four successive photographs the plane of polarisation were set to north, north-east, east, south-east, we should get a relative increase in coronal light, in one or other of the photographs, all round the sun. It would be least in north-north-east, east-north-east, &c., directions, where it would be p cos*223° + q sin? 223° to a, or about 0°85p + 0'15q to a. “The most convenient way of polarising would probably be to use a Nicol of some size not far from the plate.” On the Corona of the Sun. 113 In my early experiments I made use of coloured glass, or a cell containing a coloured liquid, for the purpose of isolating the violet part of the spectrum,* but afterwards I obtained the desired light- selection in the film itself by the use of argentic chloride, which Captain Abney had shown to be most strongly sensitive to light from h to a little beyond H.¢ Plates prepared with argentic chloride possess a further advantage for this work in consequence of the greater steepness of their gradations of density corresponding to differences of light-action as compared with argentic bromide plates. When very small differences of illumination only, existing close about a body so enormously bright as the sun, have to be photographed, the most minute precautions have to be taken to avoid false effects upon the plate, which may arise from several causes. Lenses should not be used to form the sun’s image on the sensitive surface, in con- sequence of possible false light about the image which may come from outstanding aberrations, though they have been corrected for photo- _graphic work, and from reflections at the surfaces of the lenses. I therefore employed a mirror of speculum metal. . Other necessary precautions are described in my paper, namely, the position of the shutter very near the focal plane; protecting the sensitive surface from the sun’s direct light by a metal disk a little larger than the sun’s image; placing before the apparatus a long tube fitted with diaphragms to prevent light from the sky, excepting near the sun, from entering the apparatus; backing the plates with asphaltum varnish ; and some others.t In my experiments in 1882 I used a Newtonian telescope by Short, but afterwards a fine mirror made by the late Mr. Lassell, which was so arranged that the image was formed directly upon the plate without reflection from a second mirror.§ About twenty plates were taken in 1882, in all of which an appear- ance more or less coronal in character is to be seen about the sun’s image. After a very critical examination of these plates, in which I was greatly helped by the kind assistance of Professor Stokes and of Captain Abney, there seemed to be good ground to hope that the * “Proce. Roy. Soc.,”’ vol. xxxiv, pp. 411, 412. + “ Proc. Roy. Soc.” vol. xxxiii, p. 175. ~ “Proc. Roy. Soc.,” vol. xxxiv, p. 409, also Report Brit. Ass., 1883, p. 348. See also the photographic experiments of Dr. Lohse, “ Vierteljarsschrift Ast. Gesell.,” Bd. xv, 8.134. Dr. Lohse sums up an account of his methods and results thus :— “Es gelang aber dieselben (die Schwierigkeiten) zu tiberwinden und Resultate zu erhalten welche zu einer Fortsetzung der—hier freilich selten médglichen und mit grésserem Vortheil in méglichst hoher Lage anzustellenden—Experimenten ermu- thigen.” § “TI am indebted to Miss Lassell for the loan of a 7-foot Newtonian telescope made by the late Mr. Lassell. The speculum, which is 7 inches in diameter, possesses great perfection of figure, and still retains its original fine polish, I decided not to VOL. XXXIX, I 114 Dr. W. Huggins. corona had really been obtained upon the plates. On one plate especially forms resembling closely in character those present in the photographs of the eclipse of that year were visible. In the following year, 1883, working with the Lassell mirror, I found that when the sky was free from clouds, but whity from a strong scattering of the sun’s ght, the sun’s image in the photographs was well defined upon a sensibly uniform surrounding of air-glare, but without-any such sudden increase of illumination near the sun’s hmb, or other indication which might be due to the corona. It was only when the sky was exceptionally clear that coronal appearances presented themselves with more or less distinctness. use more than 33 inches of the central portion of the speculum, partly for the reason that a larger amount of light would be difficult of management, and partly because this restriction of the aperture would enable ‘me to adopt the arrangement which is shown in the diagram. “Tt will be seen at once from an inspection of the diagram that in this arrange- ment the disadvantage of a second reflection by the small mirror is avoided, as is also the mechanical inconvenience of ‘tilting the speculum within the tube as in the ordinary form of the Herschelian telescope. The speculum 6 remains in its place at the end of the tube a, d. The small plane speculum and the arm carrying it were removed. The open end of the tube is fitted with a mahogany cover. In this cover at one side is a circular hole, f,3z inches in diameter, for the light to enter ; below is a similar hole, over which is fitted a framework to receive the ‘ backs’ con- taining the photographic plates, and also to receive a frame with fine ground glass, for putting the apparatus into position. Immediately below, towards the speculum, is fixed a shutter, with an opening of adjustable width, which can be made to pass across more or less rapidly by the use of india-rubber bands of different degrees of strength. In front of the opening f is fixed a tube, ¢, 6 feet long, fitted with diaphragms, to restrict as far as possible the light which enters the telescope to that which comes from the sun and the sky immediately around it. The telescope-tube, a a, is also fitted with diaphragms, which are not shown in the diagram, to keep from the plate all light except that coming directly from the speculum. It is obvious that, when the sun’s light entering the tube at f falls upon the central part of the speculum, the image of the sun will be formed in the middle of the second opening at d, about 2 inches from the position it would take if the tube were directed axially to the sun. The exquisite definition of the photographic images of the sun shows, as was to be expected, that this small deviation from the axial direction, 2 inches in 7 feet, does not affect sensibly tle performance of‘the mirror. The whole apparatus is firmly strapped on to the refractor of the equatorial, and carried with it by the clock motion.”’— Report B. Ass. Advance. Science, 1883 p. 346. On the Corona of the Sun. 13 The total solar eclipse of May 6, 1883, furnished an opportunity of comparing the photographs taken with an eclipsed sun with those taken in this country without an eclipse. On the day of the eclipse the weather was bad here, but plates taken before and after the eclipse were placed in the hands of Mr. Wesley, who had had much experience in making drawings from photographs taken during former eclipses. Mr. Wesley drew from ‘these plates before any information reached this eountry of the results obtained at Caroline Island; he was, therefore, wholly without bias in the drawings which he made from them. When these drawings were compared afterwards with the Caroline Island plates, the general resemblance of the corona was strong, and the identity of the object photographed in Hngland and at Caroline Island seemed placed beyond doubt by a remarkably formed rift on the east of the north pole of the sun, which is seen very nearly in the same position in the English plates and in those taken during the eclipse. This rift, slightly modified in form, was found to be present in a plate taken about a solar rotation-period before the eclipse, and alse on a plate taken about the same time after the eclipse.* In 1884, a grant from the fund placed annually by the Government at the disposal of the Royal Society was put imto the hands of a committee appointed by the Council of the Royal Society for the pur- pose of photographing the corona at a place of considerable elevation. The Committee selected the Riffel, near Zermatt, which has an eleva- tion of 8,500 feet, and appointed as photographer Mr. Ray Woods, who, as assistant to Professor Schuster, had photographed the corona during the eclipse of 1882, and who in conjunction with Mr. Lawrance had photographed the eclipse of the following year at Caroline Island. Unfortunately during this year a very large amount of scattered light was always present about the sun, arising, it would seem, from * Report B. Ass. Advance. Science, 1883, p. 348, and Plates XI and XIa. It seems desirable to put on record here a letter written by Mr. Lawrance to Professor Stokes, dated September 14, 1883 :—“ Dr. Huggins called upon Mr. Woods this morning and showed us the drawings Mr. Wesley has made of his coronas. He told us that he particularly did not wish to see our negatives, but that he would like us to compare his results with ours. We did-so, and found that some of the strongly marked details could be made out on his drawings, a rift near the north pole being especially noticeable ; this was in a photograph taken on April 8, in which the detail of the northern hemisphere is best shown, while the detail of our southern hemi- sphere most resembles the photograph taken on June 6; in fact, our negatives seem to hold an intermediate position. Afterwards I went with Dr. Huggins and Mr. Woods to Burlington House to see the negatives. The outline and distribution of light in the inner corona of April 3 is very similar to that on our plate which had the shortest exposure; the outer corona is, however, I think, hidden by atmo- spheric glare. As a result of the comparison 1 should say that Dr. Huggins’ coronas are certainly genuine as far as 8’ from the limb.” I 2 116 Dr. W. Huggins. finely-divided matter of some sort in the higher regions of the air. Mr. Woods observed from the Ritffel that when no visible cloud or mist was present, there came into view a great aureole around the sun, about 44° in diameter, of a faint red colour at the outside and passing into bluish-white near the sun. This was clearly a diffraction pheno- menon showing the presence of minute particles of matter of some sort in the higher regions of our atmosphere. The abnormally large amount of air-glare from this cause—even on the finest days—prevented any success in photographing the corona in this country, and went far to counteract the advantages of being above the denser strata of air which Mr. Woods would have gained on the Riffel under ordinary circumstances. Mr. Woods sums up his results in the following words :—“ Results on the same day are almost, if not quite, alike both with the disk and without. The corona varies more or less from day to day. The clearer the day the better the results.”’* During the last two years the sky in this country has been too bright from scattered light to make it possible to obtain successful photographs of the corona.+ We have now to discuss the probable nature of the corona.t The drawings, but especially the photographs, of the solar eclipses of the last twenty-five years show that notwithstanding great changes in form and in brightness, the corona is permanent in its more funda- mental characters. The observed changes in form, in brightness, and in relative extension, are obviously due to secondary modifications of the conditions to which the corona owes its existence. The circular form which was ascribed to the corona in the older observations can scarcely be regarded—even in the roughest sense of the word—as correct. On the contrary, the apparent form of the corona is always very irregular, in consequence of the greater extension and the creater relative brightness of certain parts. Upon the whole, there is * “The Observatory,’ December, 1884, p. 378. t+ It may not be unnecessary to state that what the photographer has to seize upon on his plates is the small excess of photographic power of the air-glare in- creased by the coronal light from behind over that of the air-glare alone. For this purpose the greatest care is necessary to select the most suitable time of exposure, and to arrest the slow development of the plate at the proper moment. Unless the attempt is made at a high elevation, the impression upon the plate must be a very slight one, and the developed image can only be seen under favourable conditions of illumination. Great care must be taken that all instrumental effects have been carefully eliminated. A convenient way of distinguishing effects upon the plate which are due to the instrument, is to take pictures with the instrument alternately on the west and on the east side of the meridian. ~ The principal points of the discussion of the nature of the corona which follows were suggested in a discourse given at the Royal Institution, February 22, 1885, entitled ‘On the Solar Corona.” On the Corona of the Sun. 117 an observed tendency of the brighter parts of the corona to assume a square form in consequence of the greater extension of the coronal matter at the latitudes between the poles and the equator of the sun— that is, over the zones of maximum spot-action. The corona is fre- quently less extended over the poles and over the equatorial regions of the sun. A noticeable exception to this state of things occurred in 1878, when the most remarkable features of the corona were two extended equatorial rays which could be traced to a distance of several solar diameters. We shall have to consider, further on, some circumstances which may have had a large influence in bringing about this state of the corona. In addition to these large changes in the externa] form of the corona, there is a complex structure within it which appears to be in con- tinual change. This inner structure was observed by Professor 8. P. Langley in 1878, under very favourable conditions, with a telescope of © inches aperture and a power of 50. He sums up his observations in the following words :—* Hixtraordinary sharpness of filamentary structure. Arrangement not radial, or only so in the rudest sense. Generally curved, not straight lines. Curved in different directions. . Very bright close to the edge, fading out rapidly, fading out Belly (this part of corona) at 5’ to 10’ from it. In addition to this more minute structure, there are large bright portions, apparently streaming outwards, and often leaving between them less bright spaces, which have the appearance of rifts. There are also curved forms which seem to turn round and to return to the sun. We must not forget that the corona has thickness as well as exten- sion, and that the forms seen by us must appear more or less modified by projection. Rays inclined towards or from the observer would be materially altered in respect of their apparent position on the sun, and Iong rays in the nearer or more distant part of the corona would appear to start from parts of the sun other than those to which they really belong. For the same reason the increase of intrinsic brightness of the corona towards the sun’s limb must be much less than the increase of brightness as seen by us, of which no inconsiderable part must be due to the greater extent of the corona in the line of sight as the sun is approached. Besides the real changes in the corona which have been observed at different eclipses, there are several sources of apparent change which may have modified the photographs taken of the corona. Of these may be mentioned—the state of the air at the time; the kind of sensitive surface employed; the length of exposure; whether _* Report T. 8. Eclipse, 1878, Washington, p. 209. Coe oN 118 Dr. W. Huggins. the image has been formed by a lens which shortens and enfeebles the ultra-violet part of the light, or by a mirror which furnishes an image more truly representing the corona in the nature of the light existing init. The difficulties which seemed to lie in the way of a satisfactory explanation of the forms and of the enormous extent of the corona, caused some doubts to be entertained as to the corona being a true solar appendage, and various views were formerly put forward. to endeavour to explain the corona as an optical appearance only, arising from our atmosphere, from a lunar atmosphere, or from cosmical dust. Mr; De la Rue,in his address before Section A of the British Association in 1872, says truly, ‘The great problem of the solar origin of that portion of the corona which extends more than a million of miles beyond the body of the sun, has been, by the photo- graphic observations of Colonel Tennant and Lord Lindsay in 1871, finally set at rest, after having been the subject of a great amount of discussion for many years.’’* : These earlier views are too completely a part of the history of the subject to need mention here, but for the circumstance that Professor Hastings has recently revived the theory of Delisle, that the corona is an optical appearance due to diffraction. , Professor Hastings bases his. theory upon the behaviour of the bright line, 1474, which he saw, in his spectroscope, change in length east and west of the sun during the progress of the eclipse at Caro- line Island in 1883. He assumes, in his explanation of this observa- tion, that Fresnel’s theory of diffraction. may not apply in the case of a solar eclipse, and he suggests that at different moments the phases of the light waves may change so that they no longer form a con- tinuous periodic series, and that it is possible, at such great distances, that the interior of the shadow may not be entirely dark, and that sufficient light may come inside to give to-an observer on the earth the appearance of a bright aureole around the moon.f Professor Hastings considers the simpler explanation of his obser- vation which has been suggested, that the change in length of the line which he observed might be due to a scattering by our air of the light from the brighter part of the corona, and, therefore, might not indicate any change in the corona itself during the progress of the eclipse, to be untenable, on the ground that the air;was_too clear, and “diffusion absolutely insensible.” He supports this strong state- ment by saying that the photographs taken by the English and by the French observers showed a sensibly black mvon, and that “‘in the photograph of the coronal lines, H and K, taken by the English observers these lines ended abruptly at the moon’s edge.”’t * Report B. A. Advance. Science, 1872, p. 6. + Report of Expedition to Caroline Island, 1883, Washington, p. 105. t Idem, p. 107. On the Corona of the Sun. 119 Captain Abney, F.R.S., who has the photographs taken. at Caroline Island under examination, informs me that :— “The diffusion during that eclipse was not insensible, as the lines H and K are: distinctly visible across the black moon as dark lines. It is true that Hand K,.as bright lines, do stop at the moon's limb, but these lines are not coronal lines, as they belong to the pro- minences. In the Hgyptian eclipse—which was avery short one— the prominences were far over the moon’s limb, and the diffusion due to the atmosphere was such that the lines H and K were shown as bright lines over the moon. In the Caroline Island eclipse the pro- minences were much less marked and more hidden during the eclipse than was the case in Egypt, and it appears that the diffusion by the air must have been much greater in the former (Caroline Island) than in the latter, since it is the light from the hidden sun which was evidently reflected and re-reflected. On one side of the moon’s limb H and. K are seen reversed, whilst on the other they are reversed beyond the bright lines.. ‘“‘In both cases the reversals are rather faint, but as strong as the reversal which was seen on the corona spectrum at the Hgyptian eclipse. In my opinion, in the photographs of the corona with the longest exposure (I am not now speaking of spectrum photographs) the moon is not shown as perfectly black, but I should not like to found any theory very definite as to this, as it might be due to over-development, but | think not.” It should. be mentioned that during the time that Professor Hastings observed the change in length of the line 1474, photographs of the corona were taken by M. Janssen, and by Messrs.. Lawrance and Woods. M. Janssen says: “ Les formes de la couronne ont été abso- lument fixes pendazit toute la durée de la totalité.”* The photographs taken by Messrs. Lawrance and Woods show that the corona suffered no such alterations in width and form as would be required by Pro- fessor Hastings’ theory, during the passage of the moon across the sun. For other points raised by Professor Hastings, and for his discussion of former spectrum observations of the corona, I must refer to his -memoir.t The evidence in favour of the corona being a true solar appendage appears to me to be of overwhelming weight. It seems difficult on any other hypothesis to explain satisfactorily—(1) the observed and the photographed spectra of different parts of the corona; (2) the visibility of the planets Venus and Mercury as dark bodies when near the sun; (3) the filamentous, and especially the peculiar curved structures seen in photographs of the corona; (4) the close agreement of photographs taken at different times during an eclipse, and * “ Annuaire pour l’An 1884,” p. 859. + Vide ante. 120 Dr. W. Huggins. especially between photographs taken during the same eclipse at places many hundreds of miles apart. At the same time a very small part of the light which is seen about the eclipsed sun must be due to diffusion by our atmo- sphere of the coronal light itself, especially of the very bright part near the sun’s limb; and we have an indication of the amount of this diffused light from the apparent illumination of the dark moon, where the effects of diffusion will be most strongly present. During some eclipses the part of the sky where the sun and moon are may be faintly illuminated by light reflected from those regions of the atmosphere near the horizon which are still in direct sunlight. It may be well to mention the principal hypotheses which have been suggested in explanation of the corona. 1. That the corona consists of a gaseous atmosphere resting upon the sun’s surface and carried round with it. 2. That the corona is made up wholly or in part of gaseous and finely divided matter which has been ejected from the sun, or received by it, and which is in motion about the sun from the forces of ejection, of the sun’s rotation, and of gravity, and possibly of a repulsion of some kind. 3. That the corona resembles the ring of Saturn, and consists of swarms of meteoric particles revolving with sufficient velocity to pre- vent their falling into the sun. 4. That the corona is the appearance presented to us by the un- ceasing falling into the sun of meteoric matter and of the débris of the tails of comets. 5. That the coronal rays and streamers are, at least in part, meteoric streams strongly illuminated by their near approach to the sun, neither revolving about nor falling into the sun, but permanent in position and varying only in richness of meteoric matter, which are parts of eccentric comet orbits. This view has been supported on the ground that there must be such streams crowding richly together in the sun’s neighbourhood. 6. The view of the corona suggested by Sir William Siemens in his solar theory.* The sun must be surrounded by a true gaseous atmosphere of relatively limited extent, but there are several considerations which forbid us to think of a solar atmosphere, in the proper sense of the term, that is of a continuous mass of gas held up by its own elasti- * Since this lecture was read my attention has been called to the papers by Pro- fessor O. Reynolds, ‘‘On the Tails of Comets, the Solar Corona, and the Aurora considered as Electric Phenomena,” and “On an Electrical Corona resembling the Solar Corona,” in vol. v, 3rd Ser., “ Lit. and Phil. Soc.,” Manchester, pp. 44-56, and pp- 202-209. Professor Reynolds considers the solar corona to be a species of that action known as the electric brush, and to be well represented by discharging elec- tricity from a brass ball in a partially exhausted receiver. On the Corona of the Sun. 121 city, which rises to a height sufficient to afford an explanation of the corona which streams several hundred thousand miles above the photosphere. Gravitation on the sun is about twenty-seven times as great as on the earth, and an atmosphere extending to a moderate coronal height, even if it consisted of a gas thousands of times lighter than hydrogen, would have more than metallic density at the sun’s surface, a state of things which spectroscopic and other observations show cannot be the case. There is another consideration from the rapid increase of density which would take place sunwards in such an atmosphere. Hach stratum would be compressed by the weight of all the strata above it, and therefore in descending by equal steps the density of the atmo- sphere would increase in geometrical ratio. Professor Newcomb gives as an example an atmosphere of hydrogen; such a gas, though heated to as high a temperature as is likely to exist at a height of a hundred thousand miles above the sun, would double its density every five or ten miles.* There is no approach to so regular and so rapid an in- crease of density to be observed in the corona. Another circumstance which puts a continuous gaseous atmosphere out of question is the fact that comets have passed unscathed through the coronal regions. Shooting stars passing with the relatively small velocity of thirty or forty miles per second through our atmosphere, rarefied as it is, at the height of fifty or sixty miles, are instantly burnt up. Resistance and heat increase as the square [or more probably for such high velocities as the cubey | of the velocity, yet the nucleus of a comet has passed through several hundred thousand miles of coronal matter with a velocity of 300 miles per second without suffering any sensible loss of velocity. These considerations are amply sufficient to show that the theory of a solar atmosphere of gas of the extent of the corona held up by its own elasticity cannot be entertained. As we have reason to believe that the corona is an objective reality about the sun, matter of some sort must exist wherever the corona is seen to extend. The questions before us are—(1.) In what form does the matter exist? (2.) Whence does it come? (3.) What are the dynamical conditions under which it can exist at such great heights above the sun P (1.) On the first of these questions as to the condition of the matter, the spectroscope has given us definite information. The spectrum of the corona is compound, and consists of three superposed spectra. : (a.) A bright continuous spectrum, which informs us that it comes from incandescent solid or liquid matter. * “Popular Astronomy,” p. 259. + See Bashforth, ‘ Phil. Trans.,” vol. 158, p. 417. 122 Dr. W. Huggins. (b.) A solar spectrum, which shows that the incandescent solid or liquid matter of the corona reflects to us. light from the photosphere. (c.) A spectrum of bright lines, which is relatively faint and varies greatly at different eclipses. We shall. consider this. spectrum more particularly further on; it is sufficient at this part of the argument that we speak of this spectrum so far only as it tells us of gaseous matter which accompanies the solid or liquid matter.. It is scarcely necessary to.say that solid. or liquid matter can exist in the corona only in the form of discrete particles of extreme minuteness. The corona must, therefore, consist of a fog, in which the particles are incandescent, and in which the gaseous matter dees not form a continuous atmosphere. Some of the considerations we have already had before us, make it evident that this coronal fog,.except very near the sun, must be of a degree-of tenuity surpassing any experience we possess from terrestrial experiments. In order to give some definite- ness to our conceptions, let us. suppose a. single: minute liquid or:solid particle in each cubic mile. A fog even so extremely attenuated, or even much more so, would probably be fully sufficient to give rise to the corona, under the enormous radiation to which it is.subjected.. (2.). The next question we have to consider is whether the matter of the corona is of solar origin, or whether it comes upon the sun from without.. Two external sources of the coronal matter have been suggested, and are widely held, namely :—(a) meteroids, and (6) the lost matter of the tails of comets. (a.) The solar system is- crowded with meteoroids: revolving in all kinds. of erratic orbits, and we know that the earth encounters many thousands of them every hour, but the sun is in a different position with regard to such of these bodies as belong to our system. In order to fall into the sun,. the planetary meteoroids: would have to be thrown into it, through some disturbance of their orbits, produced by planetary attraction, or by collision with ‘other streams, unless we admit a slow retardation of velocity produced by a resisting medium.. There may; be meteoroids which fall directly into the sun from space. Mr. Denning’s recent observations seem to show that the solar system encounters. meteor streams which: may be moving with ereat velocity through space.* Many of these bodies may fall into the sun, but we have no know- ledge of conditions which would ensure so steady an inflow of meteoroids as: would be needed to maintain the observed extent of the corona im a state of permanence about the sun. (b.) The other suggestion which: has: been made regards the corona * “Month. Not. R. Ast. 8.,” vol. xlv, p. 93: See also subsequent papers. 53h On the Corona of the Sun. 123 as fed by the lost matter of the tails of comets. We must remember that the matter which comes from the nucleus of a comet, and forms its tail, and is then lost, has been shown by the spectroscope to con- sist in nearly all. comets, of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and possibly oxygen.* If this matter is condensed into the discrete particles which form the tail, in the same conditions of chemical combination as it existed originally in the nucleus, we should expect these particles to be again vaporised in their near approach to the sun; and under these conditions we should expect to find the corona to be mainly gaseous, and to give a spectrum similar to that which is produced by the emitted hght of comets. We know that such is not the case; there is, however, a.single observation by Tacchini at Caroline Island, in which in one part of the corona he suspected two of the bands which are.present in the ordinary cometary spectrum. His words are :— *“‘ Dans le spectre du grand panache, qui était faible et presque con- tinu, et que lon. voyait seulement a fente large, j’ai observé deux bandes.qui m’ont semblé étre analogues a celles que j’ai observées dans les spectres de cométes, c’est-a-dire, la centrale et la moins réfrangible.”+ The terms in which this unique observation is given show that the lines, even if truly present, were faint and exceptional, and cannot be regarded as characteristic of the coronal light. It may indeed be suggested that the cometary matter suffers decom- position at the time when it becomes luminous near the nucleus, and that carbon may be separated in a finely divided state, and go to form part of the lost matter of the tail. In the case of comets: which have more than one tail, or exhibit rays driven off with a curvature different from that of the principal tail, there is good. reason to believe, as. Bredichin has endeavoured to show,{ that each tail or caudal ray consists of matter different in density, which has been separated. by a force of repulsion varying as the surface. It would appear doubtful, even on this view, if the supply of comets’ tails is sufficiently regular in amount to maintain a permanent corona about the sun. | It seems. to me to be much more probable that the corona is fed from the sun itself. This view is supported by the spectroscopic evidence, for the coronal gas is shown to consist of substances which exist also in the photosphere. The structure seen in the eorona is much more in harmony with the view that the matter is going up from the sun, than that itis coming down. upon the sun.. An examination of the photographs taken at eclipses, or of Mr. Wesley’s admirable drawings from them, can scarcely fail to: lead an unbiased student to the same conclusion as that which was forced * “Phil. Trans.,”” 1868, p: 559, and “ Proc. Roy. Soc.,”’ vol. xxxiii, p. 1. + “ Annuaire pour l’An 1884,” p. 862. ft “Annales de l’Observatoire de Moscou,” and “ Astron. Nachr.,” No. 2411. 124 Dr. W. Huggins. upon Mr. Lewis Swift when he observed the corona of 1878 :—“‘T was irresistibly led to the conclusion that the corona, whatever may be its nature, is not a solar atmosphere, nor an inflow of meteoric matter, as many suppose, but rather an outflow of something.’’* These considerations appear to me to be of great weight in support of the view, that though some meteoroid and some cometary matter may fall into the sun, the corona consists essentially of matter coming from the sun. (5.) We have now to consider under what dynamical conditions matter coming from the sun can take on forms such as those we see in the corona, and can pass away to such enormous distances, in opposition to gravitation, which is so powerful at the sun. There is another celestial phenomenon, very unlike the corona at first sight, which may furnish us with a clue to the true answer to this question. The head of a large comet presents us with luminous streamers and rifts and curved rays, which are not yery unlike on a small scale some of the appearances which are always present in and are pecular to the corona. We do not know for certain the con- ditions under which these cometary phenomena take place, but the only theory upon which they can be satisfactorily explained, and which now seems on the way to become generally accepted, attributes them to electrical disturbances, and especially to a repulsive force acting from the sun, probably electrical, which varies as the surface, and not like gravity, as the mass.t A force of this nature in the case of highly attenuated matter can easily master the force of gravity, and as we see in the tails of comets, blow away this thin kind of matter to enormous distances in the very teeth of gravity. If such a force of repulsion, acting from the sun, is experienced by comets, it must also be present near the sun, and may well be expected to show its power over the matter ejected from the sun’s surface. * Report Total Solar Eclipses of 1878 and 1880, Washington, p. 231. + “Proc. Roy. Inst.,”’ vol. x, p. 9; also Bredichin, “ Annales de l Observatoire de Moscou,” vol. v, No. 2, p. 89; ‘‘ Astr. Nachr.,” No. 2411; and papers by Faye in . the ‘Comptes Rendus.’”’ Stokes, “On Light as a Means of Investigation,” p. 70, et seq. O. Reynolds, “On Cometary Phenomena,” “ Mem. Lit. and Phil. Soce.,” Manchester, vol. v, p. 192. { As a contribution to the history of opinions involving more or less distinctly the idea of repulsion, it may be well to give the followimg words by Professor Young (Amer. J. of Science,” vol. i, May, 1871, p. 7) :—‘‘ On the one hand, that of Pro- fessor Norton and Mr. Proctor, whose views regarding these rays (the Jong faint rays) are nearly identical, and represent them to be streams of matter, similar to cometary substance or auroral.” In a foot-note Professor Young says further :— ‘“‘Since my name has sometimes been referred to in connexion with the so-called ‘Auroral Theory of the Corona,’ it is proper for me to state that I make no claim to be its originator. So far as I know, Professor Norton was the first to work out and publish a connected theory of the subject, basing his conclusions largely upon On the Corona of the Sun. 125 The existence of a force, which, under suitable conditions, may become one of repulsion at the sun’s surface, is not hypothetical only, for we have reasons to believe that such a force must really be present there. Though we have no definite knowledge of the distribution of electricity on the surface of the sun, we do know that chemical and mechanical actions are taking place there which must be accompanied by electrical disturbances. It seems to me that these disturbances, which must be of a high order of magnitude, bring about the magnetic changes on the earth which are observed to take place in connexion with solar phenomena.* The grandest displays of terrestrial electrical disturbance must be altogether insignificant in comparison with the electrical changes which must accompany the ceaseless and fearful activity of the photosphere. Not to mention the frequent outbursts of heated gas thousands of miles high, and over areas in which the earth could be engulphed, there is the unceasing formation of the fiery photospheric cloud-granules about as large as Great Britain. Surely it is not too much to say that our terrestrial experience of lhghtning and of his discussions of Donati’s comet, which were printed in this Journal some years ago. Professor Winlock also informs me that he has held and published a very similar opinion, and so I think have more than one of the European astronomers. My own father, more than twenty years ago, was accustomed to teach from the same chair of astronomy which I now occupy, an essentially similar doctrine. Thus the idea had long been familiar to me, and, I presume, more or less so to astronomers generally.” It may be well to give a more direct reference to the papers of Professor W. A. Norton. He says, speaking of comets (“ Proc. Amer. ‘Ass.,”’ 1854, P- 166) :—“ The tails of comets flowing away under a repuisive force from the sun.’ ** | this pomuleive force | to consist of the impulsive action of auroral matter Aowine from the sun.” Again, speaking of the corona, he says: “The ges ettes of auroral matter flowing off chiefly from the polar regions into space.’ In a subsequent paper (‘“‘ Proc. Amer. Ass.,” 1859, p. 167) Professor Norton defines his idea of the repulsive force as “‘a Borers force of cosmical repulsion exerted by all cosmical masses.” Mr. Proctor’s views will be found in his work, “The Sun, the Ruler of the Planetary System,” 3rd Hd., 1885, pp. 326—427. For M. Faye’s views on a repulsive force, see “ Annuaire pour l’An 1883,” also “Annuaire pour |’ An 1885,’ and numerous papers in the “Comptes Rendus.”’ Reference should also be made to the conjectures on the existence of a repulsive force thrown out by Sir John Herschel in his Cape Observations. * Professor Stokes and Professor Balfour Stewart have both speculated on the connexion between solar disturbances and terrestrial magnetism, and have both imagined that the operative solar change is thermic—not electrical, and that it is through radiation that it affects the condition of the earth in such a manner as to be manifested by magnetic disturbances, though the modes in which these philoso- phers have conjectured that this takes place are wholly different. In a subsequent note L have suggested that the operative solar change is electrical, and that the action is probably one of statical induction.—August 20, 1885. 126 Dr. W. Huggins. aurore fail to supply us with any adequate basis for a true concep. tion of the electric forces in action on the sun. The phenomena of comets show not merely a highly electrical con- dition of the sun’s surface, but also the permanence of an electric potential of the same kind, whether negative or positive.* Though we do not know enough of what is taking place at the sun to define the conditions which may cause the matter ejected from the sun’s surface to have a high electric potential of the same name, yet we can see that broadly all the different actions which take place there, and to which the electric disturbances are probably due, are parts of one continuous process going on always in the same direction, namely, the transference of energy from the interior to the photo- sphere, and the loss of the energy there, in the radiant form. We must bear in mind that a strongly electrified state ef the solar surface would not act as a force of repulsion upon discrete particles of matter insulated from each other, such as exist in the tails of. comets and in the corona, unless these particles possessed an electric potential of the same kind as the solar surface. If these particles were in an unelectrified condition, the action of the sun would be one of statical induction only, altering the original distribution of elec- tricity over their surfaces, but powerless to change in any sensible manner the positions of ther centres of gravity in space, because the attraction on one side of each particle would be balanced by the repulsion on the other. * The sun’s potential may be regarded as due to actions of some kind always going on, or to a permanent charge received at some past’time. ‘The sun if once charged with electricity of the same name would doubtless remain so charged, as Mr. Crookes’ experiments appear to show that a vacuum would be a perfect insulator. If the sun has been charged with electricity of one name, we do not know how this came about, though more than one probable conjecture might be hazarded. Some facts mentioned further on as to the influence of Mercury and of Venus upon the coronal matter would seem to make it very probable that these planets are permanently charged with electricity of the other name to that of the sun. If this should hold good also of the more distant planets (we know nothing of the absolute potential of the earth’s surface), we should have the planets charged with one kind of electricity, and the sun charged with the opposite electricity. As we have reason to believe that the sun and the planets formed originally one cosmical mass, the question may be suggested whether these changes of electricity of opposite names can have been brought about in connexion with the separation of the matter which forms the planets from that which exists in the sun. If we regard the sun as possessing an electric potential of one name, it is not absolutely necessary to suppose the local electric disturbances which are spoken of in the text. Electric disturbances are undoubtedly taking place there, and through these the ejected matter might come to have a higher potential than it possessed as forming part of the sun. Through these locai disturbances some of the matter of the corona might have sometimes a higher or lower potential of the same name, and in this way might arise one of the varying conditions upon which the observed changes in the corona depend.—August 20, 1883. te On the Corona of the Sun. 127 If we grant the existence of a high electric potential of the sun’s surface, we become possessed of a means of explanation of the chief coronal phenomena, provided we accept the conclusion to which our arguments have already led us, that the matter of the corona is of solar origin. The photosphere is the seat of ceaseless convulsions and outbursts of fiery matter. Storms of heated gas and incandescent hail rush upwards, or in cylones, as many miles in a second as our hurricanes move inan hour. Dante’s and Milton’s poetic imaginings of Hades fall far below the common-place scenes at the solar surface. Is it then going beyond what might well be, to suppose that some portions of the photospheric matter, having an electric potential of the same kind as that of the solar surface, from which they come, and ejected, as is often the case, with velocities not far removed from that which would be necessary to set them free from the sun’s attraction, should come under the action of a powerful electric repulsion, and so be carried upwards, and from the sun? | If we take this view of things, we are able to accept the objective reality of many of the very long coronal rays, which seem‘to rest upon sufficient testimony. At the eclipse of 1878, Professor Langley traced the coronal matter to a distance of twelve solar diameters, and he adds: ‘‘I feel great confidence in saying that (this distance) was but a portion of its extent.”* Professor Newcomb traced this ray to about the same distance, “six degrees from the disk.”*+ Such dis- tances are small as compared with the extent of the tails of comets. This view of the corona is in harmony with the source of the matter, and of the forces which the structure of the corona almost uresistibly suggests, namely, that these have their seat in the sun. We should expect, what we find to be the case, that there is usually ereat coronal richness and extension over the spot zones where the solar activity is most fervent. Matter blown upwards by an electrical repulsion would rise with the smaller rotational velocity of the photo- sphere from which it started, and would appear to lag behind in its ascent, and so give rise to the curved rays, which are so common a feature. We may well suppose that the forces of eruption and of subsequent electrical repulsion would vary in different places, and not be always strictly radial; under such circumstances a structure, similar to that which the corona presents, might arise. A force of repulsion would also be present among the similarly electrified particles of the corona, acting in all directions, and would cause these particles to separate from each other, during their ascent from the sun; the amount of this diffusion would depend upon several factors, among others, upon the original velocity of ascent, and upon the density and the degree of electric potential of the repelled stuff. * Report Total Eclipse, 1878, Washington, p. 208. + Idem, p. 104. 4‘ * Mea a A relatively very small amount of matter, under this diffusing force, would suffice to give rise to the corona, and we can see how the extremely attenuated state of the corona, consisting as it must do, of minute particles widely separated, it may be by miles each from the other, may have been rapidly brought about. It is now time to consider the gaseous matter which we know to be associated with the coronal particles, but not to form a continuous gaseous atmosphere. The gas which exists with the incandescent particles, and which the spectroscope shows to have come from the photosphere, may have been carried up as gas, or have been in part distilled from the condensed matter which forms the coronal par- ticles, under the enormous radiation to which they are exposed. Such a view of the gas which is present in the corona, would not be out of harmony with the circumstance that the amount of gas relatively to the incandescent particles appears to vary (at the last eclipse in Caroline Island it seems to have been but very sparingly present), nor with the very different heights to which different bright lines may be traced at different parts of the corona and at different eclipses. Gases of different vapour-density would be acted upon differently by an electric force of repulsion which varies as the surface, and would to some extent be winnowed from each other; the lighter the gas, the more completely would it come under the sway of repulsion, and so would be carried more rapidly to a ereater height than a gas more strongly held down by gravity. The relative proportions, as well as the actual amounts, at different heights in the corona, of the gases which the spectroscope shows to exist there, would vary from time to time; they would depend in fact also on the largeness of supply from below, in other words, upon the state of activity of the photosphere, and in this way there would come about a relation probably between the corona and the promi- nences. The varying amount of gas in different parts of the corona is illus- trated by the following statement in the Report on the Eclipse of 1882, by Captain Abney and Professor Schuster :— “The ring in the green (1474) is particularly strong in the south- western quadrant, and hardly visible at some other points of the sun’s limb. The yellow ring (D,) is much fainter on the whole, but more uniform all round the sun.” Further on (p. 270) they say—‘ As regards the corona, we may perhaps point out that hitherto the position of only one true coronal line had been fixed, though two other lines had been suspected. The corona during the late eclipse seems to have been especially rich in lines. Thollon observed some in the violet without being able to fix their position, and Tacchini could determine the position of four true corona lines in the red; from the photograph we have been able to 128 Dr. W. Huggins. On the Corona of the Sun. 129 measure about thirty additional lines, thus increasing the number of lines considerably.’’* Captain Abney informs me as follows : “The spectrum of the corona had fewer lines in the Caroline Island eclipse (1883) than in the Hgyptian eclipse (1882), and the corona was much brighter at one limb than at the other in 1883. JI think I can trace reversed Fraunhofer lines beyond the bright lines H and K away from the moon’s edge.” It would seem probable that at the time of the eclipse of 1883, the amount of light-emitting gas was smaller relatively to the number of incandescent particles than at the time of the eclipse of the pre- vious year. This supposition agrees with the fact that the scattered solar light, showing the Fraunhofer lines, was strong in 1883. There may be another connexion between the corona and the pro- minences besides that of a supply of gaseous matter, namely, one due to an increase of electric potential of the ejected matter when the prominences are numerous and large. The electric disturbances which accompany the formation of large sun-spots are well known to be of sufficient magnitude to be felt upon the earth, by causing changes in the distribution of the terrestrial magnetism sufficiently great to affect our instruments.t The Astro- * “Phil. Trans.,” 1884, pp. 264 and 270. + We do not know the mode in which the sun acts upon our magnets. The solar action may be a direct one due to changes in the sun’s magnetism, or to an electro- magnetic action due to electric currents, or to electrified matter in motion with a high velocity. The views suggested in this lecture of tne sun’s electrified state, and of the nature of the corona may possibly throw some light on this point. Two distinct modes of the sun’s action on the magnetic needle seem to be possible :— _(a.) The sun being a charged conductor separated from the earth, also a conductor, by an insulating vacuum, would affect the distribution of the earth’s electricity by its power of statical induction. As the earth rotates currents would be set up about it to effect the redistribution of electricity required to satisfy the inducing influence of the sun. May we not find in these earth-currents an explanation of some of the phenomena of the earth’s magnetism? However this may be, the changes in the sun’s statical induction which would follow from the shooting forth of the electrified matter of the corona, may well so affect the earth-currents as through them to bring about the disturbances observed in the needle. The electrified matter of the corona which leaves the sun will still go on, even when too diffused to be visible, and will still continue to produce upon the earth the effect due to its charge of electricity. The amount of this action will depend greatly upon the direction of the projected matter relatively to the position of the earth. (o.) The other possible mode of action of the corona would be to suppose an electromagnetic action upon the earth. The electrified coronal matter moving with a high velocity would act similarly in this respect to electric currents. Among other difficulties we must consider the rapid decrease of electromagnetic action at a distance. If the sun is a charged body, then in consequence of continually parting with matter charged with electricity of the same name as that of the sun’s charge, the sun’s potential would be slowly decreasing. This consideration would be in support, VOL. XXXIX. - K 130 Dr. W. Huggins. nomer Royal, writing of the magnetic activity of the year 1882, says : ‘The month of November, which was characterised by the appearance of a very large sun-spot, being particularly disturbed with remarkable rnagnetic storms on November 17, 19, and 20, and many interesting cases of lesser disturbance.”* We can scarcely doubt but that similar electric disturbances of exceptional magnitude accompany the formation of the prominences ; indeed these phenomena may themselves be, in part at least, electric discharges analogous to terrestrial aurore.f However this may he, we can scarcely doubt that large electric disturbances accompany them. Tacchini takes the view that electricity plays a chief part in the prominences, and believes that he is able to show a connexion be- tween these phenomena and corresponding changes in the magnetism of our globe.f Hitherto in our discussion of the forces which may be active in bite corona, we have taken account only of the influence of electrical — changes which take place wpon the sun. Now these changes at the sun make themselves felt upon the earth ; we may then well suppose, with a high degree of probability, that the earth,$ and especially the of the conjecture thrown out in the last sentences of the text, that the corona was formerly of larger extent, and that it will continue to diminish.—August 20, 1885. [My attention has been called this day to a paper by Prof. O. Reynolds, “ On the Electro-dynamic Effect which the Induction of Statical Electricity causes in a Moving Body. This Induction on the part of the Sun a probable Cause of Terrestrial Magnetism.” ‘‘Mem. Lit. and Phil. Soc.,’” Manchester, vol. y, 3rd Ser., p. 209.—Sept. 29, 1885. | * Report of the Astronomer Royal, 1883, p. 13. + See Balfour Stewart, “ Proc. Roy. Inst.,” vol. iv, p. 60. t “Reale Accademia dei Lincei (March 1, 1885), 8.N., vol. i, p. 181. Tacchini says :—‘‘ Cid viene anche a corroborare Vopinione mia e di qualche altro, che cioeé nel fenomeno delle protuberance solari l’elettricité attia una parte rilevante, da dovere forse considerare non poche di esse come fenomeni puramente ellettrici, come aurore polari, capaci di indurre sul nostro globo i correspondenti disturbi mag- neticl; . . . . noi possiano intanto considerare come cosa assicurata alla scienza, che if fenomeno della maiehie solari, quelle delle protuberanze ed il mag- netismo terrestro variano cosi di aecordo.” At the same sitting Professor Respighi took a different view (p. 174) and stated he did not consider the prominences to be of a nature-to occur in periods, and that he could not admit a connexion between the maxima and minima of the prominences and the elements of terrestrial magnetism. At the following sitting, March 15 (p. 228) Tacchini replies to the objections.of Respighi, and endeavours to show that Respighi has been influenced by his preconceived views of the nature of spots and prominences. F § Mr. Broun, in his discussion of the variations of the earth’s magnetism (“ Proc. Roy. Soc.,” vol. xxiv, p. 231), says :— It is shown that those changes (in 1844 and 1845) occur at intervals of twenty-six days, or multiples of twenty-six days. . . As this period is that of the sun’s rotation relatively to the earth, it appears to follow that the earth has some action on the sun, or (more probably) on some ray- like emanation from the sun, which causes these changes in the earth’s magnetism.” On the Corona of the Sun. 131 nearer planets Venus and Mercury, exert an influence on the electri- fied and attenuated matter of the corona. The elaborate researches of Mr. De la Rue and Professor Balfour Stewart appear to show an influence exerted by Venus and Mercury upon the solar regions of spot action. We know nothing of the electric distribution on Venus and on Mercury, but it seems more than probable that these bodies, as well as the meteor-swarms nearer to the sun, have an influence in determin- ing the mode of outflow of the electrified coronal matter in the direc- tions in which they happen to be. ‘The influence may be one of attraction, giving rise to coronal extension or rays from the corona, or to repulsion, in which case we might have what appears to us as a rift directed towards the body. We have not sufficient data to furnish certain information on this point, but it may be of interest to quote the following sentences from Mr. Trouvelot’s Report of the Eclipse of 1878* :— “‘ There is a fact connected with this eclipse, which, if not due to a singular coincidence, would seem to point to some attractive action of the planets on the solar atmosphere (corona). On the day of the eclipse Mercury and Venus were in almost opposite points of their orbits, with the sun between and almost on a line with them. while the Harth on the same day was in a part of its orbit which formed the apex of an equilateral triangle having for base the line joining Mercury and Venus. Knowing this, it is perhaps singular, and any- how very remarkable, to see that the eastern wing of the corona was directed on a straight line to Mercury, while the western appendage was directed ona straight line to Venus. The coincidence was still ereater. As in regard to the sun, the two planets were not exactly on the same line, Mercury being a little to the north, while Venus was a little to the south of the ecliptic; the solar appendages have shown the same peculiarity, their axes being a little inclined to each other.” I may say that the inclination of the axes of coronal extensions on the two sides of the sun may be seen in the photographs of this eclipse. It should be stated that Professor Newcomb, who observed the coronal extension towards Venus, says:—‘‘I tried to judge whether the western one (ray) pointed towards the planet Venus, then plainly visible near the horizon. The direction was apparently very slightly below that of the planet.” Professor Newcomb’s words seem to show that he did not make any allowance for refraction, which would make the planet when near the horizon appear sensibly higher than its true place. If sufficient evidence should be forthcoming in the future to estab- lish a sensible influence of the planets upon the corona, we should not * Page 93, K 2 132 Dr. W. Huggins. expect to see the coronal matter in all cases moving exactly towards or from a planet, because this matter would be also under the influ- ence of a motion in the direction of its I repulsion, and also of one of rotation about the sun.* There has been some difference of ope as to whether the corona is uniform in constitution from the sun’s limb outwards, or whether it consists of two parts, which have been distinguished by the names, ‘inner corona’ and “‘ outer corona.” There can be no doubt that at certain times, and in certain solar latitudes, a lower part of the corona, such as that described by Pro- fessor Langley, extending from about 5’ to 10’, is so much brighter than the parts outside of it that it seems to form what may be called an inner corona. At the same time, the photographs of different eclipses, and Mr. Wesley’s drawings from some of them, show dis- tinctly that all the stronger indications of structure can be traced down almost to the sun’s limb, and that the brighter parts within some 6' to 10’ of the limb, are not equally bright all round the sun. This brighter ner part is represented very strongly in several drawings wich accompany Mr. Stone’s paper on the eclipse of 1874, especially in one by Mr. Wright.t There seems great probability that the corona * General Tennant, F.R.S., informs me that since this lecture was read, he has calculated the places of Mercury, Venus, and Mars for the eclipse of 1871 and the eclipse of 1882. He says :— “The positions at the eclipse of 1871 are— Mercury position angle ........ 100° 39’ Venus 43 BA satel, amt i Seae tie Mars Py scelnteteltity + kOOn Aled Mercury is thus not far from the direction of the great prominences lettered H and T (see catalogue at page 27 of my report, ‘ Mem. R. Ast. Soe.,’ vol. xlii), and corre- sponds to the greatest extension of the coronal matter, namely, 45’ in my table. Venus is near the group lettered V, W, and X, of which group V is less only to H and I in height, and corresponds to the next greatest extension of the corona namely, 34’ 56” in my table. The real heights of the visible extensions, allowing for the foreshortening, would be for Mercury, 41’ 3” or 45’ 31”, according to the reading taken ; and for Venus, 47’ 05”. Any such calculation, however, implies a form of the coronal extension which does not exist. The more foreshortened ray would, in fact, on account of its breadth, seem longer in proportion than the one which is seen more nearly perpendicularly to its axial direction; and in this case this consideration would tend to reduce the real extension of the Venus ray. Mars does not seem to have any marked ray directed to him, but any such ray would be much foreshortened if it existed. “ At the time of the eclipse of May 16, 1882 (‘ Phil. Trans.,’ vol. clxxy, Plate 13), we should have the effects of the planets Mercury and Venus coincident, and not much foreshortened, in the coronal pictures. The combined effects of these planets are shown in the protruding angle at the upper left side of the engraved corona. There seems a marked protrusion of the general light thereabouts which would be opposite to the planets.’”—August 15, 1885. + “Mem. Roy. Astron. Soc.,” vol. xlii, pp. 43, 51, and 53, On the Corona of the Sun. 133 is of the same nature throughout, but that there is often so much more matter, in other words, the coronal fog is so much denser, within 5' to 10! of the limb, that under the effects of projection, and when seen by the eye or with a very low power, this part of the corona appears to be marked off from the corona beyond. It is possible that a clue to the real state of things may be found in the photographs of the corona of 1878. When these are examined the long equatorial rays seen by eye, can be traced a little distance beyond the bright corona, but it is found that the corona, as a whole, is not drawn out at this part, so as to extend to several solar diameters, but that these great extensions consist of rays or streamers coming out from the general coronal mass, something in the way in which fainter rays often extend from the principal tail of a comet. They may be due to a similar cause, namely, the electric repulsion acting upon particles which are more completely under its sway, either from their less specific gravity, or their more highly electrified condition. The consideration presents itself, whether in this state of things, we have only an extreme case of the conditions always present in the corona, which gives rise to the appearances which have suggested the distinction of an ‘inner corona ” and an “ outer corona.”’ There is another question which awaits consideration, namely, whether the corona rotates with the sun. It seems obvious that if the corona is due to a supply of matter and to forces coming from the sun, then the coronal structure and the degree of extension, which are pro- duced by them, at any part of the sun, would continue to be produced by these agencies at that part of the sun, and in that sense the corona would rotate. In the case of the more distant and diffused parts, the rotation could scarcely be of one and the same material object, any more than in the sweep of a comet’s tail at perihelion, the corona being constantly renewed and reformed over each part of the solar surface. If we suppose the corona to come under the influence of an external force as that of a planet, then we should expect the ray drawn out towards it, or the rift formed opposite to it, to continue to be directed to this external object, and to be independent of the solar rotation. The subpermanence of any great coronal form, therefore, would probably have to be explained by the maintenance for some time of the conditions upon which the form depends, and not by an unaltered identity of the coronal matter; as in the case of a cloud over a mountain top, or of a flame over the mouth of a volcano. We have to consider another question : What becomes of the coronal particles? Are they carried away from the sun, as the matter of the tails of comets is lost to them; or do they return to the sun? The results of eye observations, as well as of the taking of photo- graphs with different exposures, have shown that there is great pro- bability that the corona has not an outer boundary, but that it is lost 134 On the Corona of the Sun. in an increasing faintness and diffusion. The absence of a limit is probably true only of the faint outer parts of the corona. Within, and especially about the distance from the sun’s. limb to which the so-called ‘‘inner corona’’ usually extends, there is evidence of an apparent arrest of coronal matter, due in part probably to the effects of perspective, and within this distance are seen numerous rays which turn round and descend towards the sun. These returning curved forms are well shown in Mr. Wesley’s drawings of the eclipse of 1871.* We are led to the conclusion that many of the coronal particles return to the sun, but that in the case of other particles which form the stronger coronal rays and streamers, there is no return, but that they leave the sun, and, at the same time, separate more widely from each other by their mutual repulsion, and become too diffused to be visible. The state of extreme attenuation of this diffused coronal matter—such that the nuclei of comets pass through it without sensible retardation, enables us to see that the corena may be main- tained at an extremely. small expenditure of solar material. Among other considerations it may be mentioned that an electric repulsion can maintain its sway only so long as the repelled particles remain in the same electrical state; if through electric discharges the parti- cles cease to maintain the electric potential they possess, there will be no longer any force of repulsion acting upon them, and gravity will be no longer mastered. If when this takes place, the particle is not moving away with a velocity sufficiently great to carry it from the sun, the particle will return to the sun. Of course, if the effect of any electric discharges or other local conditions has been to change the potential of the particle from positive to negative, or the reverse, as the case may be, then the repulsion would be changed into an attraction acting in the same direction as gravity. — This ceaseless outflow of extremely minute particles, very widely separated from each other, may possibly throw some light on another phenomenon which has not yet been satisfactorily explained, namely, the zodiacal light. The views which I have ventured to put forward in this lecture would lead us to expect that a more extended and more brilliant corona surrounded the sun in early geological time, and that if the skies were then of their present degree of clearness, the corona would probably have been visible about the sun. May the corona have been still faintly visible in the earliest ages of the human race? Are there any philological traces of it in the earliest words and ideas connected with the sun ? On those eastern plains, where the air is of so great purity, did early men still see faintly a true zapyuos P Similar considerations point to a slow secular diminution in extension * “Mem. Roy. Astron. Soc.,” vol. xli, Plates 6, 7, 8, and 10. _ Harmonic Analysis of Tidal Observations. 135 and in brightness of the corona, as the sun slowly loses heat, and the actions of the photosphere become less fervent. The candle of the sun is burning down, and so far as we can see, must at last reach the socket. Then will begin a total eclipse which will have no end: “ Dies illa Solvet seclum in favilla.”’ “Results of the Harmonic Analysis of Tidal Observations.” By A. W. Bairp, Major R.E., and G. H. Darwin, F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College and Plumian Professor in the University of Cambridge. Received March 19, 1885. The harmonic analysis of coutinuous tidal records, inaugurated by a Committee of the British Association m 1868, has now been carried out at a considerable number of ports. Some of the earlier results were collected together in the Reports to the Association in 1872 and 1876, and ina paper-by Sir W. Thomson and Captain Evans, read before the Association in 1878, but the largest mass of data is contained in the tide tables now being annually published for the Indian ports under the authority of Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for India. | | The Report of the last Committee ef the British Association, pub- lished in the volume for the meeting at Southport in 1883, is entirely theoretical, and has been adopted in India as a manual of the method of harmonic analysis.: It is there shown how the results of the analysis are to be presented in a form appropriate either for theoretical treat- ment or for mechanical prediction by the instrument of the Indian Government in London. It is also shown how the scattered results, referred to above, may be reduced to the form which has been adopted asastandard. Major Baird has collected the whole of the Indian results, and those contained in the Reports of 1872 and 1876, and, by the aid of his staff of computers at Poona, has reduced them to this standard form. The greater part of the annexed tables is the result of this work. We must refer to the Report to the British Association for 1883 for an explanation of the method of harmonic analysis, but it will be well to give a few words of explanation. Each one of the tides, into which the oscillation of sea-level is re- garded as analysed, is expressed in the form— fHeos(V+u—x«). V+u—« is the argument of the tide, and increases uniformly with the time, so that this term represents a simple harmonic oscillation of the sea-level with semi-range fH. | 136 Major A. W. Baird and Prof. G. H. Darwin. It is supposed that w stands for the mean value, estimated over the year or period of observation, of a certain known function of the longitude of the moon’s nodes, or in a few cases of the sun’s perigee ; f stands for a factor of angmentation or diminution of the range of tide due to the variability of the obliquity of the equator to the lunar orbit, and a mean value for f estimated over the year or period of ob- servation is adopted. Tables for computing w and f for each tide are given in the Report.* V is a known linear function of the local mean time, of the mean longitudes of the sun, of the moon, and of the lunar perigee, and it increases uniformly with the time; the rate of its increase, measured say in degrees per mean solar hour, is called the speed of the tide. The numerical operation of harmonic analysis gives us H and x, which are constants peculiar to the port of observation. As the tide tables are principally for the use of British sailors, H is expressed in feet and decimals of a foot, and « is an angle less than 360°. The argumen /¥-+%—« is such that if the equilibrium theory of tides were true, with a water-covered globe, then « would be zero; and « divided by the speed is the time elapsing after any theoretical equilibrium high-water until the next actual high-water; we may call « the “lag” of the tide. If the equilibrium theory were true, H would have a value which may be computed from the formule given in the Report. If tidal observations were perfectly accurate, and if the tides were undisturbed by the weather, H and « would be absolute constants for each tide and for each port, whatever periods are submitted to analysis; and in proportion as they are found to be constant so is the analysis satisfactory. A knowledge of H and « is necessary and sufficient to determine the height of water, as due to the particular tide, at any time, past or future. The letters+ y, o,7, # have been appropriated to the earth’s angular velocity of rotation, and to the mean motions of the moon, of the sun, and of the lunar perigee respectively. Hence the rate of increase of V or the speed of tide, is expressible by these symbols. For practical convenience an initial has been adopted to indicate each one of the tides; and we here reproduce Schedule A of the Report containing the arbitrarily chosen initial letters, the speed, and a descriptive name for most of the tides. The tides involving y in the speed are approximately diurnal, those containing 2y are approximately semi-diurnal, and those containing 3y, 47, &c., are approximately ter-diurnal, quater-diurnal, and so on. Those whose speed does not involve y are called tides of long period, since the quickest of them has a period of a fortnight. * In the case of the results for the English ports below it is Greenwich n mean — + The initials of yi, ceAnvn, HAog, and perigee. Initials. a A ai = SS 2N Ss &c. | Speed. Name of Tide. Harmonic Analysis of Tidal Observations. Tog Schedule of Notation. y—o—qa, and y-o+a 2(y—Compound tides. MK | paailog | | oMK | Bele | | na Ay—So+a | | The operations of the computers give the values of « in degrees and two places of decimals of a degree, but as the values of « are in no case so consistent from year to year as to present variations of less than a degree, the tables have been abridged by the entry merely of the nearest degree. The values of « are printed in a different type from those of H, and the degree mark ° has been omitted. In the case of the ports of Toulon and Brest the results in the Report of the Committee of the British Association were given in centimetres, but they have been reduced to feet for the sake of uniformity. At the head of the table for each port the epoch, or instant, at which the analysed observations begin is noted; at every port (excepting Harmonie Analysis of Tidal Observations. 139 Kathiwadar) the epoch is Oh. of (old) astronomical time, or civil noon, of the day specified. In Table I is given the latitude and longitude of the several ports. In Table II the values are given of H and « for each year or period analysed for the ports specified at the head; these are the values deduced from the results of 1872, 1876, 1878, and from those of the Indian Survey. The initial of the tide is shown in the margin. The last column for each port gives the mean of the values for the years under observation. An inspection of the numbers from which the mean is derived shows the degree of consistency between the num- bers obtained in the several years. The number of results is hardly sufficient to make it worth while to deduce a probable error for H and «; moreover, it would be a somewhat arduous task to do so. Table III is a summary of Table II, giving only the mean values, together with the number of years from which the mean is derived, © and this is of much value for the theoretical discussion of the tides. Table IV gives Mr. Ferrel’s results from the Reports to the United States Coast Survey. The tables give altogether results for 43 ports, and for 137 periods of observation and analysis. *| We have to thank Mr. Edward Roberts, the importance of whose work in this subject is well known, for having reduced the results given in the paper of 1878, viz., those for Freemantle, Mauritius, E. Falkland, Malta, Marseilles, and Toulon. In several of these the heights were stated in centimetres, but they are now reduced to feet and decimals. Professor Ferrel has carried out an harmonic analysis at several ports for the United States Coast Survey. The process adopted by him does not appear to be identical with the method of the British Association, and there seemed to be room for doubt as to whether the results were truly comparable with ours. In answer to an inquiry on this point, addressed to the United States Coast Survey, Mr. Ferrel kindly sent a memorandum to the Superintendent, Mr. Hilgard, which has been forwarded for our information... The memorandum, dated Washington, April 27th, 1885, runs as follows :— | “The results of harmonic analyses of tide observations of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey are found in Report of the British Association for 1872, and the Reports of the Coast and Geodetic Survey of 1878, App. No. 11; 1882, App. No. 17; 1883, App. No.9. The results for Governor’s Island have not yet been printed. * This paragraph and the corresponding portion of the tables were added on May 15, 1885, subsequently to the presentation of the paper. These results of 1878 are only given in Table III, and not also in Table II. 140 Major A. W. Baird and Prof. G. H. Darwin. ‘Those in the Report of the B.A. are by Sir W. Thomson. In those of the Coast and Geodetic Survey the A’s (amplitude) correspond with Sir W. Thomson’s R’s, but the e’s (epochs) differ from his by 90° in the diurnal components. These corrections of his epochs I introduced into my ‘ Tidal Researehes’ in 1874, p. 44, § 28.* “From areference to Schedule I, Tides of Penobscot Bay, Professor Darwin with reason concludes that I have not applied this correction in the diurnal component of the «-tides. This arises from the omis- sion by oversight of a footnote to Schedule I, as follows :-— ‘“«* For \) read A’—4z in the diurnal component of the K-tide.’ ‘““'The corrections have, in all cases, been applied according to this note. ‘In my ‘ Tidal Researches’ of 18741 have given formule for the correction of both the amplitudes and epochs depending upon the position of the moon’s node. These corrections reduce them to what they would have been if the moon had moved in the ecliptic. By a reverse method these amplitudes and epochs can be reduced back to any year for which practical application of the results is required. In the discussion of tides in Penobscot Bay J have also given small tables, Tables IiI—VI inclusive, to facilitate these corrections, and reductions depending upon the lunar node. The double signs, how- ever, of Tables III, V, and VI, got reversed somehow in copying and printing; but the signs have been used correctly in the reductions, even in those of the Report in which the signs are given erroneously, which shows that they were at first correct, and that the error was introduced in copying. ‘‘These nodal corrections have in all cases been applied to the results, so that in these corrected results the irregularity of long period depending upon the moon’s node is eliminated, and the ampli- tudes and epochs are the same from year to year, except so far as they are affected by small irregularities from abnormal disturbances not completely eliminated. An exception to this, however, is the case of the St. Thomas tides, in which the reductions were not carried so far, and these small nodal corrections were not appled to these small tides. The amplitudes and epochs are those simply belonging to the years of observations. . . . It is certainly desirable to have an international uniform notation. “T should have stated sooner that in Table II, column C, 90° have * [Notwithstanding this assurance I venture to think that Mr. Ferrel must be mistaken. For example, at Sandy Hook, it looks as though it were certain that K,, L, \ have been reduced according to one rule, and the rest of the semi-diurnal tides according to another ; for the phases differ by about 180°. Compare again O, K,, P with J and Q at Penobscot Bay.—G. H. D., August 12, 1885. ] [It may be noticed that « of 8, for San Diego differs by 180° in the U.S. reduc- tion from the value in the B.A. reduction. I have no evidence as to which is correct.—G. H. D., October, 1885. ] Me Harmonic Analysis of Tidul Observations. 141 always been deducted before using it in the reductions in the case of the diurnal component of the K-tides.”’ We give below the results above referred to by Mr. Ferrel. We may remark, however, that the heights have been abridged by the omission of a place of decimals, and the epochs by the omission of the decimals of a degree. We have not, however, given quite all the results of the United States Coast Survey. Mr. Ferrel’s treatment of M, is not identical with ours, and it is omitted; also there is no - place vacant for some of the smaller overtides in our schedules. The reader especially interested in these tides is therefore advised to refer also to the original sources. The results for St. Thomas are derived from a letter dated March 10th, 1885, addressed by Mr. Ferrel to the superintendent, and kindly communicated to us. From the correspondence it appears that the American results should be comparable with the others, or at least that the difference should be insignificant. As remarked, however, in a footnote on the preceding page, this conclusion is open to doubt. We have thought it best, therefore, to keep these results in a table separate from the others. | 142 Aden. ee Rene ala Okha Point and Seat Tivbone Gulf ‘of Caton @eeoeoevecoe eve oe eee Table I. Indian Tide Tables. eoeo4atfoesereee Kathiwadar or Shial Bet, 8. coast of Kattywar Bombay, Apollo Bunder ........0.+.ee0ee Karwar. Beypore, 7 rales s. of ‘akon Paumben Pass, island of Ramesweram .. Mierana ball ote nee kas Us se oe NY ETc lg Wop epee Recaro AN ay Re STE Nt ee eoeereevoeeeee eevee eevee -@ ee Wal Pyerh OENERTT a selec sa ne ao oc odo False Point.. Dublat, Seitteow Tatar, een Fiowahy. ck Diamond Harbour, River Hooghly.......... Kidderpore, River Hooghly Elephant Point...... IMBTNEOO 56 555556005050 no SO 5 45C Amherst Moulmein. Port Blair, Het Tana British Association Reports. eoceoeeeee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee rere ee ee ee lat. 12° 47’ N 24 47 22 28 20 58 a8 755 14 48 1 ko 9 16 10 46 13 4 17° 41 20 7925 21 38 22 11 22 32 16 29 16 46 Gs, 16 29 el AW Major A. W. Baird and Prof. G. H. Darwin. long. 44° 59’ B , 66 58 69.7 71 36 72 50 TA iG F 75 49 79 18 Pe): 79. S23 «- 80> GES no ele poate . Sake 86 47 88 6 « 88 7a4 88 22 63 te oe 96 19 96 12 nissan a’. (9%) aa 5 ace scat 97 40 92 45 N.B.—Results for English ports are referred to Greenwich mean time. Fort Point, California. . San Diego, California . eseee Port Leopold, Arctic Rei relens: Beechey Island, Erebus Bay, Arctic ‘Anchen Cat Island, Gulf of Mexico.... {OU Ea Sin seeds aids So Ga sona dd eUendod 46 VERA oe Bon Sacco, on} oo. Amen oeo ae So. Ramsgate ...... apa vesteiartlepool yen mieueteie clas oieleletale 261 233 247 eeooese eeoveove || eeeece 219 eae OLOSIs Os Olome OF O27 We nseet |inecta tle || oe anes 0007 i kK = 244 235 240 ce reee ceccoe || coves 219 He or oe 0°010 | 0O:010 || kK = eeceece 153 153 ue =| ceded 0°041 | 0:°041 Odiu—adl sheyore! 6 319 319 i O O06 0°012 0-009 MS 1; = 138 Ig1 189 asm {2 = K = M te = ee eeece ee eee eecceee || eeeeee || ee eee e 0-094 0°061 m i = | So do 04 oo aca so0a00 Ill bon000 seco ee 304. 228 i ae oe eeer | ee eee oe 00 oF oe eee eevee ee 0-069 0 °045 HEM a= || os ehra eve eM lle ere ere) fl «.s o.ee's Bcd Hohe oodo bc 134 118 use { = coogoO 00 JPoocoaads Hh 00 0.0.6 eeoe gr 0:095 0:°018 HOt saieh \Metepisele: |) 's@ «/0) «5% lle enemies: sees 336 53 ee cove oo Tl coco oon | Mae opeaee |||Ne'o is ode Pai oteiets 0 °274 0-157 Ke eeeece | ce evece eeceaoe |} eceecvee ec ee ee 145 279 R ae nie etnies 6 CE CIA iee| AAS Crreremalll eS chs Gude alle Coeyiel Ges 0°128 0 090 8a Ke ee ee eecavce fF ce esee || saveve ee rece 35 144 176 Major A. W. Baird and Prof. G. H. Darwin. | Table IL. (a) Brest. (b) Ramsgate. (c) West Hartlepool. (a) Com. Oh., Jan. 1. (6) Com. 0 h., Jan. 1. (c) Com. 0 h., July 1. N.B.—English ports referred to G.M.T. (2) (0) (c) (c) (1) Near j..% eal), L875; 1864. 1858-9. | 1859-60. | 1860-1. Mean. 9 Oe dl OO 0-037 0-019 0-054 0°025 0°03838 Se Lise = 52 313 132 157 169 152 g Hs Broo. 1°877 1°754 ira Li 1-749 1-738 ica 138 33 141 138 138 139 9 ee == | Teta le coat 0°632 0-025 0°021 0°019 0°022 SoC ape lay 4 190 174 172 179 S ich |e aleie 0:-020 a 35 III 7 295 30 41 95 M H =} 0:'585 | 0:°720| 1°049 | 1°473 | 2°250) 4°610) 5:177 2k = 47 252 2.48 253 270 290 344 M H =| 0-016} 0:003 | 0°004} 0:°006 | 0°014| 0°046 |} 0-035 {i = 170 103 62 329 30 133 223 M H =| 0-016} 0-021 | 0:°003 |} 0°015 | 0°038 | 0°095 | 0°745 4\n = 194 77 146 331 230 144 246 M H =| 0O°011} 0°012 | 0-010] 0:005} 0-010 | 0-014] 0-152 te - 42 128 154 72 63 255 106 M VE =| 0°005 | 0:005 | 0-002 | 0:003 | 0:°003 | 07012 | 0-062 Sle =} 314 303 46 209 246 294 345 Ole =] 0°115 | 0°091 | 0-097 | 0-141" 0-177 | - O- 1899) Pees k= 45 322 325 331 335 334 345 K Ve =| 0°294 |} 0°225 | 0°298 | 0°359 | 0°408 | 0°493 | 0-496 ee 46 345 340 342 345 352 = K H =| 07113 | 0-077 | 0:°112 |} 0°203'| 0-255 | 0-596") OsGa6 AE = 90 286 280 277 297 318 23 Bye: =} 0:110| 0:084| 0-097 | 0°096 | 0°145) 0°155 | 0-175 k= 46 346 344 339 344 343 9 J H=}~'0:014-;° 0-011 | -0-021-7- 0-025 _|---0-026°>|--0 024-4" Osis ae — 48 328 318 837 312 324 320 8, Paumben. Harmonic Analysis of Tidal Observations. 8 9, Negapatam. 12, False Point. 13, Dublat. 14, Diamond Harbour. 9 Table IIT. 10 10, Madras. EE 12 13 191 11, Vizagapatam. 14. Years. No. of years observed... H Qt; Lie K gla K fe K a Vv K H els R{e K eg K us {2 K 2M | K Mnf K ue {i K ust { K Saft K Ssa{ 2 K (Vee ese | eer et [ee9 ell al ll ll Ii ott ll I ll 1878-82.) 1881-8. 1880-3. | 1879-83. 0 °332 114 1881-3. | 1881-3. | 1881-3. 2 0-011 324 0-059 254 0:476 267 0-068 180 0°142 244 0:075 273 0-034: 27 0:017 T49 0:041 2754 0:01L7 187 0:063 55 0-067 35 0-050 356 0:793 166 0° 287 146 2 0-009 333 0-167 291 0-947 236 0°219 316 0 °232 251 0°165 Lb 0°219 289 0°137 Zo9 0°077 UBS 0-072 Zur 0-040 77 0°048 66 0-063 356 0° 900 150 0°208 136 2 0-030 192 Major A. W. Baird and Prof. G. H. Darwin. Table ITI. 15, Kidderpore. 16, Hlephant Point. 17, Rangoon. 18, Amherst. 19, Moulmein. 20, Port Blair. 21, Fort Point. 15 16 iby 18 a 20 21 Years. 1881-3. |} 1880-1.| 1880-38.) 1880-8. | 1880-3.| 1880-8. | 1858-61. No. of years observed ... 2 if 3 3 3 3 3 9 a a Ooi 0°113 0°1138 0 °222 0-096 0°021 0°015 “Le =| 193 79 133 141 149 38 212 9 ee = 1 °468 2 °337 2°012 2°769 1°362 0°968 0-390 ia Iol 143 170 105 148 315 336 R a = 0°075 0 °037 0-081 0-106 0-067 0-003 illo. rs I1g 162 259 122 229 84 R (Eis) 70005 0-021 0-010 0°012 0-005 0-002 6 = Le 299 94 48 187 183 131 g i 0-008 0-008 0-005 0-008 0-002 0-002 ve 311 60 120 2,76 211 80 M Le 0 SHO: Oaks 0019 0°033 0-032 0°018 0-010 0-038 1 k= 157 88 183 255 1338 291 170 M lal = 3 °627 5 °870 5 545 6-233 3-779 2 °022 1°689 a 58 103 031 69 113 278 332 M oS 0-015 0-025 0-021 0:019 0-025 0-007 3 = iq = Bet 146 178 261 2,09 16 M Et = On72 0-079 0-410 0°350 | O°901 0 008 0-071 “We = 37 46 169 51 iyi IBE 24 M al = 0-159 0-205 0 233 0-118 0 °102 0-002 De ss 319 349 87 252 200 317 M she =| 0 5078 0°031 0-081 0°014 | 0:0388 0-002 Sle = 270 322 97 249 133 7° i O 15h == | 0-220 0-349 0:294 | 0°317 0-253 0°160 | 0-780 K Et ail 356 28 339 48 302 87 | K Es — | PO paao 0-807 0-670 0-699 0°438 0-397 L219 1 a= 56 18 35 5 40 327 107 K H =| 0:°485 0°401 0°570 1°104 | 0°336 0 °282 0°135 “le = 96 gi 169 ie) ae 30% 330 Bre =! 0°144; 0-199 0°149 | 0:177 0°134 |} 0°134 | 0°373 es 47 33 55 337 60 326 105 7 jel eu ly OrOeh ye OTe 0:030 | 0:074 0-022 0 027 0-053 kK = ri 61 33 34 | 107 3.25 Iz! Harmonie Analysis of Tidal Observations. 15, Kedderpore. 16, Hlephant Point. Table ILI. 17, Rangoon. 19, Moulmein. 20, Port Blarr, a & K ll Mm co i) 1S) “I \o R{e = 0-167 eoee ee for OS 77 7 H = 0°147 k= 107 k= 81 67 k= 2 84 Mm { — 0°244. 0°145 k= 351 6 Me} a = 0-297 0:°098 k= 38 310 Te a) 273 Saf = 2°740 0-930 k= 157 146 Sea {1 = 0 *822 0°261 k= 269 198 VOL. XXXIX, Lz 18 19 193 18, Amherst. 21, Fort Povnt. 20 21 1880-3.} 1880-3. | 1880—3.| 1880-8. | 1858-61. 15 16 Years. 1881-3.} 1880-1. No. of years observed... 2 1 aie = 0°0389 0°042 9 336 i a 0°187 0-346 ae 74 109 seg = 0-638 1-543 k= 47 80 r = 0°101 0°659 a 107 145 ae = 0°238 0-681 | 383 209 0-208 34 0-554 497 1°486 150 0-126 328 0-097 DSS) 0 055 ay 0-726 140 0-156 235 3 2,87 3 SE eEEei eee 3 194 Major A. W. Baird and Prof. G. H. Darwin. Table ITT. 22, San Diego. 23, Port Leopold. 24, Beechey Island. 25, Cat Island, Gulf of Mexico. 26, Toulon. 27, Brest. 28, Ramsgate (referred to G.M.T.). 22 23 24, 25 26 27 28 Years. 1860-1. | 1848-9.| 1858-9.) 1848. 1853. 1875. | 1864. No. of years observed ... 2 eral. 1 1 if 1 1 9 =F) sO O28 GO PORT a ae im 0:044 | 0°010 | 0:015 | 0:037 lle = 238 29 Ste Sat ite) 186 52 218 9 Le =| 0°695 | 0°643 | 0-686 | 0°068 | 0°090 | 2°551 | 1°877 2k = 274, 29 34 24 250 138 33 g H =| 102006 | FO 7007} %. 2% ie ny 5 0 *002)) Seen 0°032 Ake — eon 257 Nera eB ee ee 298 os ee lois 4 g aa ee ioe Al Sete elo ee she: simi Gis cate foe ee 0-027 6)e = = e ove 27 Hie Se M H =| 0°049| 0°045 | ...... 0-007 | 0-010 | 0:004 le = 106 2 Olu als eyelet 26 319 167 M H =] 1:715 | 27001} 1:996'|: O-116.| 0-190.) 6 *7obRap Gates 2\n = 276 338 347 II 252 100 341 u A 1 AO FOOTE aie ete ee | Mies fore tte | Reena 0°004| 0°067 | 0:043 a)K = 19 B eliaia (eS ll Me atotetln oe vene 9 2 56 M | 0 2028) 0 s01b 5) 00240 ae. eee 0-011 | 0°169} 0-548 we = 2.03 202 2 OO Tala tetatces 349 SH ih P1243 M We | O01) cock Pee cece | cece we | O7002)) VO MURR aaa: me es 84 45 152 325 iy Py SOR ee eRe 0-001 | 0-008 | 0-054 M,{ = 146 kK = 4 203 54 O H =! 0-696} 0:443 | 0°488 | 0°479 | 0°059 | 0-211 | 0°342 ie = 48 164 162 315 302 322 180 K H =| 17096 || 0°899:| 0-901 |) 08525 | 0-116 | O-208N Or 2ze 4g = 94 216 243 325 3 66 18 K H =| 0°207 | O:°175 | O°151; 0°028 | 0°024!] 0°553 | 0-520 ae = 263 29 54 2.88 254 144 24 H =| 0357 |. 0°216 | 0-215 |. 07156 | 0-041 |, 0-071) ORGre P4t = 90 218 2212, 321 fe) 59 353 J H =| 0-084 we 0°035 | 0-008 {i = 99 | eeaeee e 297 I5 Harmone Analysis of Tidal Observations. Table ITI. 22, San Diego. 23, Port Leopold. 24, Beechey Island. 25, Cat Island, 26 1853. 0-090 Gulf of Mexico. 26, Toulon. 27, Brest. G.M.T.). ” 22 23 24 25 Years. 1860-1. | 1848-9. | 1858-9.| 1848. No. of years observed ... 2 I! 1 Al Q ie =) | UIE aE ae 0-091 ec = TiN tre echelons 307 ee 0-019 0 °044. 0-080 0-012 c= 344 3 47 33 ae =| 0°428|} 0°420| 0°429/ 0-026 k= 260 306 315 25 afar AAO Oa [is ch siete) Hilo, a) (aes) auahiayay' es k= ZAR DIEM. & 5a 2c | aaa Die hOQe ie ates "le = DCM Ie: eat tras dee? Miserable vs = 0-027 Oe = 2/56) A I eee deal aes Rea is I Ba ek 0-010 apes 53 oft =| 0-041 Pe 319 Ms ie =a eg LOOM [ale aie ieyited S| aicton ates ie Beal toca rate ares Whiccieh starrer a ae eee asm { H =| eb coot |igeeheonll aeme on es Kenan op aeaie Fatt arcisieperse (hy «chareuetes Racha deans Mm {2 Sl cece “uhioge Seen bee Gone 0-094 Kk = APN BE oon ole - 304 urs H Sills Oreo apll ioe CoML aCe 0-069 LK = e [| eeeceee 134 use { = lee Be Sc edlkee Cee meee cide 0 °095 Keefe fayo'eya es | | eelieel 8 « 336 Safi = Shspeieves ol) \e-dl-ake; eve 0°274 ie Micertersin | ail ereee. |e heats 145 $a 4 i x 0°128 FONE ocak elas 5 35 195 27 28 1875. 1864. 1 1 0-192 | 0°447 IOI 16 1 ‘375 1 084 83 a2 6°059 | 0:°174 59 35 0 °2938 0344 45 339 0-307 | 0:°251 g2 87 0-324 Be Picken neg) 0°141 Soagee 262 0-038 | 0:029 328 45 0°069 | 0°044 76 288 0°290 | 0-094 52 206 @{ 261). O27 234 181 0:071 | 0:075 93 288 28, Ramsgate (referred to 196 Major A. W. Baird and Prof. G. H. Darwin. Table ITI. 2 29, West Hartlepool. 30, Portland Breakwater. 31, Liverpool. 32, Liverpool. 33, Helbre Island. 34, Freemantle, West Australia. 30, Mauritius, Port Louis. N.B.— English ports referred to G.M.T. 29 30 31 32 33 384 35 . 1851, 57,| 4or" ig Years. 1858-61, Ge 70 1857-60.) 1866—70.| 1858-67.| 1873-4. | 1838-9. : : No. of years observed ... 3 t 3 + 10 1 1 g H=| 0-033 | 0-037 | 0-066 | 0-038 /.. 0°039 | 0:013 Lie 152 89 62 83 eke 60 2 g fs = 1°738 1:°074 | 3:°240 3°101 3128 0°145 | 0°331 ec 139 244 II 12 3 292 26 g H =| 0-022 0-012 0-056 0-058 | 0°030 | 0°004 | 0-003 ac 179 186 316 313 312 72. 116 S ine ee eeee . e | eerecee e eee 0 ‘002 6 K =='| secece ee . eee 235 R gE a ns ree ee: fees yd ey See | Fe ‘ 0-001 : ME = ee take lee || Ue leiee ale) | ie eile\s win ee ee Ii4 M Hy | 0026 0°015 0-020 | 0:°039 0-033 0°025 | 0-004 5 = 104 292 258 336 262 261 100 M i — 5 °163 2°048 ; 10°100 9 ‘881 9°758 | 07159 | 0:433 ie 98 194 326 327 319 286 23 M [0036 0:086 | 0:°124 | 0:°097 0°104 | 0:008 | 0-016 ee 118 180 324 324 293 217 167 M He —) 30-085 0°468 0-702 0 °683 0°479 | 0:010 | 0-004 a 109 32 222 223 213 260 296 M ha =| 0:074| 0°207 0-211 0°184 | 0:070 | 0:007 | 0-005 Dk 50 70 348 350 34 277 94 M ES aS see 0-012 0:077 | 0-061 0°010 | 0:005 0-001 89) Gc eee 49 271 285 352 259. 1°" 968 o1F =| 0°434 | 0:°163 0°377 | 0-366 0°370 | 0°372 | 0-140 as 85 353 43 49 4i 291 98 K H =| 0-880 | 0°295 0°358 | 0:°353 0-391 0°638 | 0-244 a 248 114 194 195 188 300 121 K H=]| 0-488 0-301 0 °939 0°9384 | 0:°890 | 0:°057 | 0°138 tc 1— 135 239 7 4 358 288 23 P | sO tae, 0-108 0-130 0°126 0°146 | 0O°156 | 0:056 k= 232 108 192 180 174 297 132 s{/H= 02028 0. a eee veseee | 0°026 | 0-029] 0-009 Ve | B2Aae S.aic o's aye” I deletite ee ol spain otal 122 310 118 Harmonic Analysis of Tidal Observations. 197 Table ITI. 29, West Hartlepool. 30, Portland Breakwater. 31, Liverpool. 32, Jnverpool. 33, Helbre Island. 34, Freemantle, West Australia. 30, Mauritius, Port Louts. N.B.—English ports referred to G.M.T. 29 30 31 32 33 34, 35 | Years. | 1858-61. Pape 2,’| 1857-60.| 1866~70.| 1858-67.| 1873-4. | 1838-9. a No. of years observed . 3 4 3 4. 10 1 E a | ee — | fe =| 0°148 mur lbaaiel oie axe 0-118 | 0°099 | 0-024 Lk = 32 ee eeee 345 290 78 Ee =a Or 2005) O- ll | 0-540 | 0-521 | -O-428' |. 0-021 | -0:033 as 114 111 345 328 331 244 + Nii =| 0°988 | 0-4 1-923 | 1°888 ,; 1-857 | 0:041 | 0:137 = 73 185 306 305 295 340 32 r i =| 0°095 | 0:°083 | 0°259 | 0°204} 0°194 |) 0:006 | 0:°018 k= 116 £L7 337 336 334 356 298 og =| 0°270| 0:°115| 0°570| 0°498 | 0°488 | 0-012 | 0-008 = 88 140 285 297 278 232 257 Ve —ts O;O8o | O-3a74.|) O-Z9E | 0-228 | O-083'| O-O16 ; O:@19 Mle = 6 196 38 4I 34 324 317 R{e =] MOUS Se ee ae LTS 20) oe Bese 6 0-050 = 158 46 : 359 Lp a 4) a 2 ee Oe 2a isis ia : 0 °254 { k= ZOO Mace alee eee ce cee 327 H=j| 0°044} 0°267| 0:404| 0°407} 0:280 MS k= 126 go 270 270 267 = 5) OFO26' |) G-059 | 0-152) > O12 |. OEY 28M i 310 353 216 227 22% ee OE. race « ams OIA i 064) | ac. 0°079 | 0-047 Mm k= 93 wecsvaleis 165 ZOCOR |i se vetele 147 297 oe { = Or OG Tew cies 6. 0°036 | 0:057 0-082 | 0-036 feo 205 eesece I41 344 e e 25 350 Hi= |, 0-137 0-058) OF05E | wa. 0°032 | 0:015 MSf k= BQ | eawaee 246 68 : 178 gI sa fi =| 0°265 Ac Ondaa\e Or 407) | a. 0°537 | O-211 k= 219 227 QP 2D Powe es sve 27 346 Ss fe =i OF09F |r e. own 0°128 | 0:°185 0°175 | 0-118 82 kK = 223 175 229 eee 126 118 198 Major A. W. Baird and Prof. G. H. Darwin. Table III. 36, Falkland Islands, Port Louis. 37, Malta. 38, Marseilles. 39, Toulon. 36 37 38 39 Years. 1842-3. 1871-2. 1850-1. a s ai Mean of Seen gaa 1847, 48, 53. | observed... il if 1 be is fa a a Eee | .« fH=!| 0-289 0-009 0-019 0-011 i WR] La | k= 2 162 48 20 R fs = 0 °492 0-120 0-078 0-091 Sy ss 195 100 247 250 9 ae = 0-007 0-001 0-003 0-002 ae = 64 B7 277 288 H = Ta \ al = es Mu 1 = 0-024 0-005 0-003 0005 1 Be k= 79 69 124 168 M Ae = 1 544, 0°197 0°220 0-195 2 k= 157 93 228 246 M H = 0:018 0-002 0-005 0-004. ie = 83 204 185 174 | M le _ 0-068 0°003 0°019 0-014 TEs 357 350 o 352 a 0-012 0-001 eo eeeseere 0 ‘001 OT ee 76 26 Mtotehe ooeveae 145 M Le = 0°010 O-OUS We al seclereaiolone tere 0 002 8 a 2 = 193 127 set eee eens 60 012 = 0°451 0-024 0-069 0-060 k= 4 83 106 120 K Aes = 0°358 0 ‘035 0°104 0°105 ; | k= 37 | 43 181 186 K il = 0-170 0-033 0:016 0°019 ha 206 110 254 254 Pa = 0-141 0:011 0 040 0 °041 po == 87 58 182 178 ees sjolete el 0-001 0-008 0:005 k= . 59 198 176 | } | Harmonie Analysis of Tidal Observations. 199 Table III. 36, Falkland Islands, Port Lowis. 37, Malta. 38, Marseilles. 39, Loulon. 39 Years. i Mean of No. of years Peet, observed... Ee 0-010 Qk = 44 EE = 0-009 De = 255 nos 226 ee 0:010 ‘Sa eeaee 308 Eo O-O1L "lke = 158 i 0-009 ape 193 He K — aa K == Mey lp = asm] K — Mm4 io eeo2n2 0024 e2zee ve vee 0-010 0°057 Kk = Cece ence te sececeee 293 196 oe { —— i. audieenele es e eeeeesecceve 0-019 0:061 a SE rhs ava sia orehtaneie 229 159 use| 2 = ececaereeve eereceeeeee 0:008 0-029 Fem ease lecres caver |b Viase ale: oi Safar wed 41 323 Saf = Bh NS pee | RE ORT Ee 5 0°151 0 °123 He ae eel bles ay sicn's : OU Occ ec 185 254 Sadi a Peary ae id lie. shu s madegelen ga 0°170 0-108 k= oehel seed sier ere eisreteats 118 114 200 © Major A. W. Baird and Prof. G. H. Darwin. Table IV. Penobscot Bay. 1870. | 1871. | 1872: 4 187s. | ISA. || WSyae Mean. —— 0-068 | 0°015 | 0°022 | 0:020 | 0:020 | 0:002 0°024+ 0°004 129 78 67 123 73 25 65°9 2%z10°8 0-825 | 0-735 | 0-776 | 0-797 | 0-746 | 0-747 | 0-7714 0-007 350 | 356 | 357 | 354 | 354 | 358 | See gee 0-008 | 0:004 | 0-003: | 0-006 | 0-005 | 0-004 113.1) "73 |), 348 222 350 29 Not reduced according to same rules as the rest of our results and omitted. 4°878 | 4°849 | 4°910 | 4°911 | 4°884 | 4°937 4°895+ 0-008 320 319 320 320 320 320 | 319/62 a7enee -0:012 | 0:002 | 0-009 | 0-012 | 0-006 | 0-002 263 135 161 123 279 229 0°039 | 0°021 | 0°019 | 0°028 | 0:020 } 0°022 160 154 173 115 7) tat 0-118 | 0°115 | 0°121 | 0°125 | 0°122 | 0°119 61 60 65 61 60 58 0:017 | 0°014 | 0-009 | 0°018 | 0-014 | 0-016 336 314 | 354 336 326 320 -0°363 | 0°351 | 0°364 | 0°353 | 0°354 | 0-366 0°359+ 0°002 113 109 114 109 112 110 Lire ae 55 0°455 | 0°459 | 0°452 | 0°452 | 0°459 | 0°440 0°453+ 0-002 129 130 132 129 129 129 129°6 + 0°35 0°256 | 0°229 | 0°226 | 0°195 | 0-235 | 0-238 0°230+ 0-006 5 351 359 2 4 352 | 358°8 E17 0:°152 | 0°151 | 0:148 | 0°152 | 0°155 | 0°160 0°153+ 0:°001 127 113.23 137 132 124 131 130° as a0ee 0:025 | 0°014 | 0-026 | 0-031 | 0:019 | 0:009 0 °020 341 266 320 315 323 292 315 Harmonic Analysis of Tidal Observations. 201 1871. 0-060 | 0°058 245 Zeit 0°336 | 0°172 190 1°046 295 0 °083 162 0°162 301 0:043 237 0-068 227 0-189 239 0°036 308 0°039 297 0-082 96 0°012 I 0°190 161 0.080 120 187 1°136 291 0°132 256 0-335 317 0 :034 194 0:°026 26 0:°104 139 0°016 210 0:°014 135 0-069 35 0:°037 208 0-157 yet 0:176 162 0°090 | 0°093 48 Be Table IV. Penobscot Bay. 1872. | 1873. | 1874. 0:073 | 0°058 | 0:077 259 246 Ze 0°195 | 0°285 | 0°223 156 193 219 0-986 | 0°929 | 0-991 287 289 291 0°043 | 0°120 | 0-156 146 256 125 0°093 | 0°320 | 0°215 306 317 263 0°015 | 0°031 | 0-048 176 241 219 0-055 | 0°050 | 0 035 92 352 182 0°190 | 0°233 | 0°156 Ho 331 243 0°025 | 0°010 | 0:028 21 299 ul 0°021 | 0°025 | 0:055 318 270 327 0:024 | 0:074 | 0:057 34 296 279 0°048 | 0:047 | 0:073 II 212 4 0°163 | 0°229 | 0:180 152 161 159 geoge NO N20 RO: Lis lel 167 188 we fey | 10 09 FO 026 sees III 146 1875. 0:073 284 0°209 209 1-027 289 0°177 234, 0-289 | 323 0-035 | 202 0-062 8 0-087 123 0°010 75 0-025 | 41 0°014 110 0-040 O5 0°123 159 0 °262 226 0°152 Mean. 0°066+ 0-002 GAT) BE 8) 85] 0°237+ 0°017 192-1 ten6-4 1°019+ 0-°019 29073, a= O78 0:064 196 0 °274 F 308 0-032 216 0-022 288 0°174+ 0°010 BS7 = Liz \« is computed i on hypothesis that these are ( astronomical 74 |) tides. 202 Major A. W. Baird and Prof. G. H. Darwin. Table IV. Port Townsend. 1874. 0-086 rakes 0-557 130 0-007 349 Commence, January, 1874. 1876. 0-102 114 0 °542 129 2-218 108 0°022 298 0°125 290 0°028 Mean. 0 ‘087 L632 0 552 129°5 0:010 327 Astoria, Oregon. 1875. 0 °053 117 0 °774 38 0-009 341 2°942 | 1876. eeoase Mean. 0-052 II5 0-788 40 0-009 344 2 °937 119 0°021 68 0°101 326 0°031 116 0-762 118 1-289 12g 0° 224. 26 0-360 96 Harmonie Analysis of Tidal Observations. Port Townsend. Table IV. Astoria, Oregon. Commence, January, 1874. 1874. 1875. O29 7 Ovsld 119 124 0 085 0°107 347 356) 0 °461 0 °466 82 81 0:045 0:031 6 29 0:156 0°089 76 46 0:078 0-098 35% 7 0:010 0°008 35+ 214 0:071 0:050 38 239 0-062 0-072 319 310 0:011 0:017 62 42 1876. 0 °295 124 0-080 320 0 :440 79 0:019 334 0 :029 137 0 :059 356 0 :020 241 0° 108 175 0:058 318 0:018 41 Mean. 0-302 122 0-091 341 0 °456 80 0-031 2 0:091 86 0:078 358 0:°013 269 0-064 316 0016 | 49 1876. 203 rr A A ER 204 Major A. W. Baird and Prof. G. H. Darwin. San Diego. Table IV. Commence 0h., January 1, 1869. Wear’ &... | ° 1869, 1870. g a 0 °024, 0 °024. Neh 5 54 51 R Ae ee O°701 | 0-697 rc 274 274 g ee 0:006 | 0-005 ee 221 169 A= B41. = H = Se 5 i Te M1; z nS el oe 2 al as ite Met =) 29g 279 = | 70-0087); 0-012 Ms), = 32 67 Hi = | 0°025 0 026 M4 7 = 200 193 yf =| o-oo | o-onr | SLi = 150 118 ne M,{ Z On =| 0°697 | 0-698 2 = a1 41 K Ee 1-010 1-010 Ye == 96 96 K He) 0-207 0° 202 ae 2.68 265 Pat =| 0°358 0 °349 es 93 92 1871. | Mean. 0°023 [| 0:°024 12 39 0°716 | 0-704 275 275 0°006 | 0:°006 204. 207 1°G97 | 17703 280 279 0°005 | 0-008 48 49 0:030 | 0:027 194 196 0°009 | 0-010 IIo 126 0°714 | 0°703 72 71 1-010] 1 :-G10 96 96 0°194 | 0:°201 266 266 0°339 | 0°349 95 93 St. Thomas. Commence October 4, 1872. 1872-3. | 1873-4. | 1874-5.] Mean. — || ———__ — —_—-.. 0-007 233 0-030 245 0°1381 208 0° 237 149 0-290 173 0 082 190 0°017 | 0°008]} 0-011 249 251 244 0-032 | 0-031] 0-031 243 242 243 0°121 0°119 | 0:°124 208 207 208 0°240 | 0°253 | 0°243 153 156 fF 153 0:296 | 0-300] 0-295 170 170 171 0-080 0°073 0:078 167 170 176 Hlarmome Analysis of Tidal Observations. San Diego. Commence 0 h., January 1, 1869. Year 1869. oF 2 aa 62 n{t = 0 423 ik = 262 4a zs kK => ae Vv a aS 0 024 Plk = 256 Ba 2 kK = te = ms {3 = K = asm { 3 = K = Mm = ea es fe = mse] f= kK = oa K Sea aay K — oe eo ee Table IV. 1870. 1871 Mean. || 1872-3.) 1873-4. | 1874-5. 0°028 | 0°032 | 0:°042 29 Ty 69 0-412 | 0-401 | 0°412 263 264 263 0°037 | 0°017 | 0:026 244 258 2.53 Mejteorologi|cal Sialic oi MW era «, Pa 0°007 | 0-037 O50 Tillie CCNOCRN (REINER COUT |ltoncle ea ae 355 Byes Behdickod ili An 0°049 | 0-061 doc oc : aia 3 93 207 St. Thomas. 205 Commence October 4, 1872. Mean. 206 Major A. W. Baird and Prof. G. H. Darwin. 0129 0°103 0°013 Table IV. Sandy Hook. 1878 1879. 0:028 0-025 254 2.16 0 °436 0 :44.5 248 245 0-033 0 °033 83 81 Dae, 2 244. 218 218 0:021 0:035 202 192 0-017 0:020 336 oom 0 °053 0-046 351 344 0°1853 0°157 99. IOI 0 -34U 0 °337 go gI 0°118 0:114 30 40 v‘091 0 :100 103 107 0:°014 0:014 145 III 1880. 1881. 0 '036 0 049 255 237 0°416 0°435 242 249 0 037 0 :041 68 52 2 °229 2-250 215 216 0-029 0-030 zg) p 206 O :024. 0 :027 Ba5i 329 0:057 0 °059 344 342 Onan 0:176 go 100 0-333 0 °34.2 83 go 0-130 0:160 $5) 40 0:102 | 0-100 TOG han 108 0-009 0 025 107 134 Mean. 0032 235 0° 434 246 0-038 69 Harmonie Analysis of Tidal Observations. 0°083 00380 | 0-039 131 0-110 a7 0 °507 196 0-039 26 0°124 238 0°063 216 0-030 241 0:105 34 0037 | 122 0014 158 Table IV. Sandy Hook. 1878. 1le7@. 0:029 | 0-083 10% 133 0-108 | 0:G84 3° 59) 0°532 | 0-500 199 2.02 0:030 | 0-029 2.6 69 0°167 | 0:°153 198 170 0:094 | O-O61 235 207 0:010 | O-O11 1g 16 0°046 | 0:075 306 155 0:050'| 0°039 107 116 0:007 | 0-021 66 225) 0:°010 | 0-042 334 Ah 0-066 | 0-072 164 203 1880. 0-011 2.30 0 ‘060 236 0:014 | 23 0 °058 193 207 0 042 113 0-068 208 , \ Peles + a “i _ PUBLISHED BY eee Maszsry’s STATIONERY OFFIcE, q ‘CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC PAPERS, 4 : Compiled by the Royal Society. 4 : | Vols. 1to8. Price, each volume, half morocco, 28s., cloth, 20s. = A reduction of one-third on a single copy to Fellows of the Royal Society. 3 ge Sold by J. Murray, and Triibner and Co. Now published. Price 20s. CATALOGUE OF THE SCIENTIFIC BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY OF . THE ROYAL SOCIETY. Frast Srotron :—Containing Transactions, Journals, Observations and Reports, Surveys, Museums. SEconpD Section :—General Science, A Reduction of Price to Fellows of the Society HARRISON AND SONS, 45 & 46, ST. MARTIN’S LANE, W.C., AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. - PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY. e-VOL, XXXIx. No. 240. vy Se ee ee = : S a“ > | CONTENTS. November 19, 1885. 5 PAGE I. On the Total Solar Eclipse of September 9, 1885 (in a Letter to Professor Stoxss, Sec. R.S.). By James Hector, _MD., F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey, New Zealand . Sees : ; . 208 II. On the Total Solar Eclipse of September 9, 1885 (in a Letter to J. N. LooxkyeR, F.RS.). By A.S. ATKINSON. : : 5 wo Ziel III. Report on a Series of Specimens of the Deposits of the Nile Delta, obtained by the recent Boring Operation. By J. W. Jupp, F.RS., Sec. G.S., Professor of Geology in the Normal School of Mines. Com- municated by desire of the Delta Committee .. : : . . 213 IV. On Evaporation and Dissociation. Part I. By Professor Wittiam Ramsay, Ph.D., and SypNry Youne, D.Sec., Lecturer and Demon- strator of Chemistry i in University College, Bristol : : - 225 V. On the Phenomena accompanying Stimulation of the Gland-Cells in the Tentacles of Drosera dichotoma. By WILLIAM GARDINER, M.A., Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, Demonstrator of Botany in the University . B : : 6 : : , : ; : 229) VI. On Variations in the Amount and Distribution of Fat in the Liver-Cells of the Frog. By J. N. Lane ey, M.A., F.R.S., Lecturer on Ce in the University of Cambridge . : ‘ : ; ; 234 For continuation of Contents see 4th page of Wrapper. Price Five Shillings and Sixpence. oes 5 pas PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. Part IL, 1884. CoNTENTS. ' XIII. On the Dynamics of a Rigid Body in Elliptic Space. By R. S. Huaru, B.A. XIV. Researches on Spectrum Photography in relation to New Methods of Quantitative Chemical Analysis. Part II. By W. N. Harrtey, ERSE., &. | XV. On the Transfer of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. By J. H. Poyntine, M.A. XVI. On the Motion of Fluid, part of which is moving Rotationally and part . Trrotationally. By M. J. M. Hin, M.A. -. _ XVII. On the Electro-chemical Equivalent of Silver, and on the Absolute Electro- motive Force of Clark Cells. By Lord Rayueien, D.C.L., and Mrs. H. Sipe@ewick. : XVIII. Influence as Change of. Condition from the Liquid to the Solid State on _ Vapour-Pressure. By WinirAmM Ramsay, Ph.D.,and Sypnry Youne, D.Se. ; XIX. A Record of Experiments on the Effects of Lesion of Different Regions of the Cerebral Hemispheres. By Davip Ferrier, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., and GEraLp F. Yo, M.D., F.R.CS. © - x XX. On the Comparative Morphology of the Leaf in the Vascular Cryptogams and Gymnosperms. By F. O. Bower, M.A., ¥.LS. X XI. Conditions of Chemical Change in Gases: Hydrogen, Carbonic Oxide, and Oxygen. By Harotp B. Dixon, M.A. Index to Part II. Price £1 16s. Extra volume (vol. 168) containing the Reports of the Naturalists attached to the Transit of Venus Expeditions. Price £3. Sold by Harrison and Sons. Separate copies of Papers in the Philosophical Transactions, commencing with 1875, may be had of Triitbner and Oo., 57, Ludgate Hill. Harmonie Analysis of Tidal Observations. K 118 Bes 0°103 kK = 52, Nile = 0:470 k= 198 ny Ea 0-012 i = 15 iE — 0-045 v lek = 178 H = 0-072 en = 221 Rit = 0:020 a 324 K 116 asm { 8 ot 0:018 t= 138 Mm {2 BG K — orl e = i mse { # = 0-030 a 41 g he =} 0:083 a a 224, Sea { cy = Table IV. Sandy Hook. SWE 0-039 131 0:110 4? 0°507 196 0-039 26 0°124 238 0°063 216 0-030 241 0°105 34 0-037 D22 0°014 158 0:014 171 0 ‘066 2.2.5 1878. 0-029 107 0-108 30 0-532 199 0-030 26 0-167 198 0-094: 235 0-010 i) 0:°046 306 0-050 107 0:007 66 0:010 33% 0-066 164 1879. 0°033 133 0084: a5 0° 500 202 0042 224 0-072 203 1880. 0°011 2,30 0-060 236 1881. 0 °037 134 0-072 21 0°475 199 0-062 13 0:077 253 0-039 2,36 0:037 9 0:058 23 0-040 114. 0°005 343 0°014: 23 0-058 198 207 Mean. 0-035 120 0-092 31 0-490 ng) 0 :036 35 0°105 198 0-069 227 0-030 334 0-042 113 0 :068 208 VOL. XXXIX. 208 Dr. Hector. On the [Nov. 19, November 19, 1885. THE PRESIDENT in the Chair. In pursuance of the Statutes, notice of the ensuing Anniversary Meeting was given from the Chair. Mr. Cornelius O’Sullivan and Dr. Sydney Howard Vines were admitted into the Society. Professor W. G. Adams, General Boileau, Dr. Huggins, Dr. Perkin, and Dr. Rae, having been nominated by the President, were by ballot elected Auditors of the Treasurer's Accounts on the part of the Society. The Presents received were laid on the table and thanks ordered for them. The following Papers were read :— I. “On the Total Solar Eclipse of September 9, 1885 (in a Letter to Professor STOKES, Sec. R.8.).” By James HEcTOR, M.D., F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey, New Zealand. Received October 22, 1885. Wellington, September 12, 1885. Dear Sir, On the 5th instant I duly received your note of the 15th July, enclosing instructions drawn up by the Committee for observing the solar eclipse which took place here on the 9th. - he instructions were circulated in all quarters where they were likely to be of use. You will observe from the enclosures that unfor- tunately both the parties equipped by Government, in their anxiety to get as near the line of centrality as possible, encountered bad weather, so that no observations were made which can be considered 1885. ] Total Solar Eclipse of September 9, 1885. 209 to have scientific exactitude. The eclipse, however, was very dis- tinctly seen at Wellington, and I have been able, with the assistance of friends and the accounts in the newspapers, to obtain the following information concerning it. Scarlet prominences were only moderately developed, and were clustered chiefly at the equatorial and polar regions of the sun. The best observers agree that the corona had a very irregular outline, and was most continuous and vivid close to the sun’s limb, having the longest expansion reaching to nearly two diameters from the western equatorial region. This large expansion appears to have had a strongly marked spirally twisted structure, while all the other appendages consisted of radiating pyramids. No laminated structures appear to have been observed in any part of the corona. Most observers agree in describing an intensely brilliant flash or meteor, lasting for two seconds, at the commencement of totality on the eastern side of the sun, and exactly over the position of a large sun-spot that was just coming into view at a few degrees south of the sun’s equator. This flash is described as having looked like a large electric lamp suspended ata little distance from the moon’s edge. At the close of totality another flash, similarly bright, but not so large and pointed, was seen on the western limb of the sun in a position corresponding with a large sun-spot that was within l' of are of passing over the sun’s edge. The following is a list of the enclosures :— 1. Notification of the Committee’s instructions. 2. Charts of shadow path showing the position of Dreyertown and Otahao. 3. General time plan of eclipse by Mr. Arthur Beverly. 4. Silver print of totality by M. Cazneau, Wellington. 5. Enlarged drawing from a negative }'’ in diameter of the totality, photographed by Mr. Gell, Wellington. 6. Sketch by Mr. J. Buchanan, F.L.S. 7. Three sketches taken during totality at Wellington by Mr. T. W. Kirk. These were taken in succession as marked 1, 2, 3, the sun being intersected by a plumb-line, and disclose the remarkable feature that the N.W. extension of the corona shifted its position with refe- rence to the prominence. 8. Generalised sketch from various sources, showing the outline of the corona, the position and shape of the prominences, and the positions, marked by red crosses, where vivid flashes of light were seen at the moment of beginning and end of totality. All agree that these flashes were like electric lights, and quite dazzling, the first being large and round, while the last seen was small and pointed. 9. Sketch of the large spirally twisted flame of the corona over the N.W. quadrant, as sketched by Mr. H. P. Higginson, C.E., with a P 2 SR ae ae | 210 Totul Solar Eclipse of September 9, 1885. [Nov. 19, binocular glass. As Mr. Higginson observed and sketched the great eclipses of 1869 and 1870 in India, and is an accomplished draughts- man, he had previous experience to assist him. 10. Complete sketch by Mr. Higginson of the total eclipse finished from a drawing made with a binocular. 11. Sketch with the naked eye, by Mr. Alfred de Bathe Brandon, junr., which also shows the twisted character of the large coronal appendage. 12. Sketch showing the position of the sun-spots that were visible at the time of the eclipse, (a) being a very large spot that was just passing off, (b) a spot not visible before the eclipse, which has since developed into an intensely black sharply defined spot of moderate size. 13. Extracts from newspapers. In conclusion, it is hardly necessary for me to state how much I regret that I am unable to give you fuller and more precise informa- mation founded on my own observation. (Signed) J. Hecror. [The publication of a selection of the illustrations is deferred until some additional drawings or photographs expected from New Zealand shall have arrived. Enclosure No. 1, giving an account of a lecture delivered by Dr. Hector before the eclipse, is subjoined, with the omission of a portion at the beginning, the interest of which has now passed away. | (Hatract from Enclosure No. 1.) The chief interest of the eclipse will le in the observation of the scarlet prominences and of the silvery light of the corona or halo that surrounds the sun during the period of total darkness. The pro- minences may be expected to have great brilliancy, as for some weeks past the spots on the sun have shown that its surface is in a state of violent activity, and one of such unusual size as to be almost visible to the naked eye, will have reached such a position that it will coicide with the left hand edge of the sun at the time of the eclipse, and from this point unusually large flames should be looked for; for observing these flames it is necessary, in order to intensify their light, to use a fragment of rose-tinted glass. On the other hand, to observe the light of the corona to perfection, a very pale biue-tinted glass is necessary, so as to cut off the red light and intensify the pale silvery light of the corona. A telescope of high power is quite un- suitable to the observer, but a wide field opera glass will be useful. Instructions have been received from the Committee of the Royal Society, which relate partly to the taking of a photographic, spec- “aw oe 1885.] Total Solar Eclipse of September 9, 1885. 211 troscopic, and other observations that require special instruments, but the following extracts may be of use to most observers :—Draw- ings of the corona have only seldom proved to be of great utility. If such drawings are attempted on the present occasion, observers ought to pay attention to the general outline of the corona rather than to points of detail. A plumb line ought to be suspended, if possible, between the observer and the sun, so as to fix the position of the corona in the sky as accurately as possible. The vertical line ought to be indicated on the drawing. Observers will find it useful to draw the black disk of the sun and the vertical line before the beginning of totality. . . . Observers unpractised in accurate drawing will obtain more useful results by paying attention to certain features of the corona than by attempting what can only be a very rough and inaccurate sketch of the corona. Definite answers as to the following questions, for instance, would be of great value:—(a) To what dis- tance from the sun, estimated in solar diameters, can you trace the corona? (b) Does it extend further in some directions than in others, and what are the directions of greatest and least extent? (c) Is there a line of approximate symmetry in the corona, and what is the direction of that line? ‘The answers to the last two questions ought, if possible, to be given in angles from the vertical line, or from some definite great circle. II. “On the Total Solar Eclipse of September 9, 1885 (in a Letter to J. N. Lockyer, F.R.S.).”. By A. S. ATKINSON. Received November 19, 1885. I observed the eclipse from a spot in my own ground in Nelson, which, as determined for the transit of Venus, is in lat. 41° 17'1:9"S., and long. 173° 17’ 57:5" EH. The sky was very clear, and there was no wind, but the air was optically very unsteady. As totality was approaching, perhaps two or three minutes before, I tried with the telescope (5-in. Cooke, power 60) if I could see any- thing of the corona behind the moon, but could not in the time I allowed myself; I was afraid of waiting longer, as I had made arrangements for taking some small photographs, and had to super- intend ; and as I wished also to answer the questions of the Committee of the Royal Society, I thought it best to observe the main phase with the naked eye. I may, perhaps, note here, that in finding my way with the telescope to the moon’s following limb, I chanced upon Jupiter, the appearance 212 Total Solar Eclipse of September 9, 1885. [IN ov. 19, of which surprised me greatly. It was, of course, “boiling” a good deal, but at the moment I caught sight of it, it seemed to have one broad uniform equatorial belt, with at least its northern edge rather sharply marked; in breadth it seemed about one-third of the planet’s (polar) diameter, and in colour distinctly pink. This belt disappeared and reappeared with the motion of the air. I shifted my eye in the telescope, but the breadth and colour seemed constant on each reappearance, so long as I looked, which was not, however, very long. As the sun was just disappearing, the most striking phenomenon I noticed, looking straight at it, was a strongly marked pulsation in its light ; those who were looking away from it saw waves of shadow passing rather rapidly over the ground. This also, I supposed, was from the unsteadiness of the air, but to me it seemed not the least striking part of the great spectacle to see the sun flickering as 1t were before it went out. The following are my answers to the questions of the committee :— a. I estimated the greatest distance from the moon’s limb to which I could trace the corona as from two-thirds to three-fourths of a diameter. b. The corona extended much farther in one direction than in any other. By far the greatest feature in the corona was a broad-based but hollow-sided cone of white light, with well-marked edges, and a rather sharp point, the axis of which I judged to be from 40° to 45° from the perpendicular towards the west. The “least extent ” of the corona, as I saw it, was the same in several places, where there was only a narrow rim of light round the moon’s limb. There were other smaller but more or less similar prominences of pure white light, all of which, I may say, gave me the idea of radiating from the sun’s centre. c. There was, in my opinion, no line of “ approximate symmetry ”’ in the corona. I looked right round the sun with a view to answer this question, and that was the conclusion I came to without hesita- tion. As there was nothing to balance the large “ cone,” the nearest approach to symmetry would have heen obtained by taking its axis as the line, but I should not have called the result of this division ‘* approximately symmetrical.” The only red prominences I saw were a row of six or seven small ones (Bailey’s beads ?) extending from about the vertex towards the east. Large ones were seen by others, and I believe are those which alone appear in the photographs. Mr. J. R. Akersten obtained for me two photographs during totality, one immediately after it began with an exposure of probably a little less than a second; the other a few seconds later, with about double the exposure. 0°10 9 @eeceeeve ve a) 0°25 99) Fee Ones'ep'e.\ 0. 8:'e —-) _— — — — TS Fre sa Rt ee fae We lizsle clea leslie i es ro Pee ae ee * The cresol used was the purest commercial sample, and was obtained from Messrs. Calvert. 262 Mr. A. W. Blyth. [Nov. 26, The table gives the results obtained at the ordinary temperature, and also at the temperature of 35°5°. The effect of a temperature of 35°5° is remarkable, and goes far to explain the happy effects of the so-called antiseptic or Listerian method of surgery. The effect of the higher temperature is seen mainly in the longer period of time between the infection and the subsequent growth, e.g., when the phenol was present in the propor- tion of 0-1 per cent., under these conditions the growth was retarded to the seventh and eighth day, and 0°25 of phenol which did not disinfect with certainty at from 15—16° did so at 30°0°. Pyridine Series—Pure samples of pyridine (C;H;N), picoline (C,H,N), lutidine (C;H,N), collidine (C,H,,N), parvoline (C,H,,N), and also acridine (C;,;H,N), and acridine hydrochlorate were placed at my disposal by Mr. Benjamin Nickels. Solutions of the bases were made in 20 per cent. alcohol, and the bacterium was experimented upon on the same lines as in the pre- series of experiments. The table gives the general results obtained, and establishes well The Pyridine Bases. DAVE mines 2.) 3. | 4 | Sa, 6. |. 7.) So oe eee At 15°52— Pyridine 0-9 per cent. ....} — | + ” 16 ” as ai as aa T, =. a = = = ” 2°0 ” = “ [Nove@a; Alkaloids. Days...cseee| 2 | 3..| 40:15. 16. | 7.) Bl |) s Or ane tetas At 15° to 16°5°— Strychnine 0°02 p.c...] — si 0°04. = ” Ors; a O01 T 5 0:02 = os 0°25 = 5 Le og0r of Se - tibiae o - ” 1:00 » “@ Brucine 0°01 oa . 0°02 = ” O25 5, a me io i ane Mainth- la on 03 050 —,, 77 Quinine sulphate dis- | — solved by means of acid in water 0°5 p.c. Quinine sulphate dis-} — | — | —|—-—|]—]—|—-|]—-|]|—-]-]|- solved by means of acid in water 1:0 p.c. Quinine sulphate in| — | — | — |] —] + water 0°3 per cent. At 35°5°— Ditto so. csesevecess| — | — L— | = |) =) =) =e At 15° to 16°5° Atropine sulphate 0°5 per cent. Aniline water 1:9....] — | + > ZO — “ Ot Fee a. Theine 1 per cent. .... Morphine acetate 0°5 per cent. Morphine acetate 1:0) — | — | — | — | —} + per cent. Control .,....} + f++4++ | | | | | | | | | | [e+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | i} | | | | eal lea | +] 1+ | | | | + Ferrous Sulphate——Infected threads steeped many hours in a saturated solution of ferrous sulphate (16°7 per cent.) afterwards developed a strong growth, thus confirming other researches as to the unreliability of this salt as a disinfectant. Potassic Permanganate.—Hxperiments on the action of potassic per- manganate were made by the thread method. As the infected thread was immersed in a large volume of the disinfectant, the latter acted under more favourable conditions than are likely to occur in actual practice, in which there will be usually a quantity of easily broken up organic matter, decomposing the permanganate, and thus in effect removing it. The results are given in the table, from which it appears that no 1885.] Studies of Disinfectants by New Methods. 265 true disinfectant action takes place until the strength reaches 1 per cent. Ferrous Sulphate and Potassic Permanganate. Dry ation aed 5. InGesle eal Ss ie ON WO, 4) 11: ——— ee ee ee ee ee ee ee At 16°— Ferrous sulphate (saturated) 16°7 per cent. Ferrous sulphate 84 per cent| — | — | — | — | + Ferrous sulphate 5 per cent. .) — | — | — | — | + Herrous sulphatel:6 per cent.| — |; = | — | — | + At 35°5°— Ferrous sulphate 1:6 percent.|. — | — | — | — | — | + | | | | | | | + At 16°— Potassic permanganate 0°01; — | + per cent. Potassic permanganate 0°04) — | + per cent. Povesempermaneanates lO) 6) y=) i — 1) yi) per cent. At 35°5°— Potassic permanganate 0:04); — | — | — | —/|—|—J|+ per cent. Potassie permanganate 04) — | = | — | — | —|—|—| + per cent. Controls seis | | Halogens.—Since minute quantities of the halogens have a very decided inhibitory action on growth, the thread method of investi- gation was thought more suitable. Sterilised threads were, therefore, infected with the bacterium, and submitted for twenty-four hours to chlorine, bromine, and iodine water of known strength, the thread being afterwards soaked in distilled water to free it from all traces of the halogen, and then planted in gelatin. The results are not essentially different from those obtained by other observers, and fully confirm the great disinfecting power of the halogens, 0:01 per cent. solution of any of the three being sufficient to destroy the bacterium. Of the three, chlorine is the most active. 266 Mr, A. W. Blyth. [Nov. 26, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine. Days....0s..| 2 | 3 | & | 5.| 6.1.7. | 8.4 9. | SO eee Chlorine 0001 p.c... i ©0025 «1. OOO. oh gees a ot ae BOM be ip Iodine “O-001) .,.. «i. Ey) HOO hee 2 NP i) MOO se, nt 0-01 iE Bromine 0°001 ,, .. 55 RODE nears. ds 5 OOM e e Control ys iiss 3.0 5 ta) 02 (snl moma bg I | ene Ue oa Let | | | | | | | | | 2. Hxperiments on the Disinfection of Sewage. In the following series of experiments an entirely different method of procedure was adopted. The number of colonies in a gram of sewage or other suitable liquid was carefully determined by a modification of known methods. The same sewage was then treated by substances the disinfectant properties of which formed the subject of inquiry, and the number of colonies capable of growing in a nutrient soil, representing the micro- organisms which had escaped destruction, again enumerated. 1885. ] Studies of Disinfectants by New Methods. 267 The only special apparatus used requiring description is the “ drop- bottle ” and the “rings and plates.” The Drop-bottle—The figure represents its shape and size, the capacity is about 25 c.c. The stopper is hollow and terminates in a pipette; it has a pin-hole at a, which can be closed by the finger. The Glass Plates and Rings.—The glass plates were 4 by 2 inches square, the rings 4 inches in diameter, $ inch thick, and { inch high. The plates had a ground surface the size of the ring thickness; the rings were cemented to the plates in the following manner. After heating the rings and plates in a hot air oven for many hours a little peptone gelatin was run on to the ribbon of ground surface, the ring adjusted, and the whole allowed to cool in a glass chamber formed by a small dish covered by a slightly larger one; at the bottom of the dish was some filter-paper moistened with a solution of mercuric chloride. The plates were not used until the gelatin cement had perfectly set. I should also add that the plates were ruled by means of a diamond into squares for the purpose of easy enumeration. Solid substances, such as ferrous sulphate, were weighed and dis- solved in definite quantities of the sewage; in other cases solutions of known strength were mixed with the sewage. The time during which the disinfectant acted was, as a rule, twenty-four hours. The method of cultivation was as follows:—A small quantity, whether of diluted or disinfected sewage, was transferred to the previously cleansed and sterilised drop-bottle, the bottle and its contents carefully weighed, then by means of the pipette stopper one or two drops spotted on to the surface of the glass cell formed by the plate and ring already described; the weight of the drops was ascertained by reweighing the drop-bottle. Ordinary nutrient gelatin liquefied at a gentle heat was run from a Lister flask into the glass cell, and mixed equally with the drops by inclining the plate in different directions. During these several operations dust was excluded as far as possible by covering the glass cell by a second glass plate, merely shifting the plate sufficiently on one side to allow the insertion of the nozzle of the Lister flask or the point of the pipette. The cells thus charged were placed in the moist chamber; the gelatin rapidly set, and at the end of from three to five days the colonies of growth were counted in the usual way and their general nature determined. The weight of the drop or drops taken varied from 20 to 100 mers., the gelatin in which the drop was cultivated from 15 to 20 grams, so that the minute quantity of disinfectant contained in the drop itself was diluted from 200 to 1000 times. This amount of dilution with the comparatively weak percentages of disinfectants used would reduce the action of the disinfectant on the gelatin, the cultivating 268 Mr. A. W. Blyth. [Nov. 26, soil—to a minimum, so that practically as soon as the micro-organisms still surviving were floated into the nutrient gelatin they were removed from the sphere of disinfectant influence. Phenol and Cresol.—lt is of importance to know the relative dis- infectant powers of phenol and cresol, and for this purpose the following comparative experiment was made. Two quantities of sewage were respectively treated with phenol and cresol, so that the mixtures were equivalent to 1°9 per cent., and allowed to act for twenty-four hours; the mean of two strictly concordant experiments gave the following as the number of colonies which at the end of four days could be enumerated— No. of colonies per gram of the sewage taken. Esl ates ¢1 8) Bee manepere, He oe Sue PRR eae om oR ayn oo,0a0 CrESial otis esanak & eae eho ie ieccees checjey S caecchacde eae 33,410 hs Goninon 5.625... «tare Bi byaanpeet a