Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 13.djvu/651

Rh L. Clingman. Raleigh, N.C.: Nichols print. Pp. 25.

Twenty-five Cent Dinners for Families of Six. By J. Corson. Pp. 72. 15 cents.

Separation and Subsequent Treatment of Precipitates. By F. A. Gooch. From "Proceedings of the American Academy." Pp. 8.

Vortrag über den Mexicanischen Calender-Stein. Von Prof. Ph. Valentine. New York: Marrer und Sohn. Pp. 33, with Plates.

Instinctive Operations of the Human System. By J. F. Hibberd, M.D. Cincinnati: Lancet print. Pp. 16.

Malaria and Struma. By L. P. Yandell, M.D. From American Practitioner. Pp. 15.

Honest Money. By T. M. Nichol. Chicago: The Honest Money League of the Northwest. Pp. 56.

Report of the Board of Schools, St. Louis (1876-'77). St. Louis: Daly & Co. print. Pp. 280.

Notes from the Chemical Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University. Nos. 9–12.

Duty of Literary Men. By Rev. T. A. Goodwin. New York: Burnz & Co. Pp. 16.

Spelling Reformer. Vol. I., No. 5. Same publishers. Pp. 6.

The Currency. By J. Johnston. Chicago: Honest Money League of the Northwest. Pp. 38.

Physical Exercise and Consumption. By Dr. R. B. Davy. Cincinnati: From the Lancet and Observer. Pp. 16.



The Recent Solar Eclipse.—The telegraphic reports from the various stations for observing the solar eclipse of July 29th are of necessity meagre and confused. The atmospheric conditions were eminently favorable along the line of totality, indeed in the whole region west of the Mississippi, while throughout the East clouds generally concealed the phenomenon from view. Dr. Henry Draper, stationed at Rawlins, Wyoming Territory, took four photographs of the corona, two of them with his large spectroscope. These latter are declared to be "very sharp and full of detail." This is a very fortunate circumstance, for it will enable scientific men to ascertain the precise truth touching a very important difference between the observations of Dr. Draper and those of the other astronomers. Dr. Draper reports that he finds the corona spectrum marked with the usual Fraunhofer's lines of the sun's spectrum. These lines were not seen by the other observers, whether at the same station or at the many other stations in the track of the total eclipse. Mr. Lockyer, in a dispatch, says that "Newcomb's party and Barker made careful search for dark lines in the corona, but none were observed. Young," he adds, "telegraphed that there were no lines observed in the ultraviolet at Denver." Again, most of the spectroscopic observers report the presence of bright lines in the coronal spectrum, Prof. Young seeing several bright bands, and in particular the Kirchhoff line 1447. This observation, too, is negatived by that of Dr. Draper, whose photographs of the corona exhibit none of these bright lines. The world of science will await with profound interest the minute examination of all these coronal photographs; the result will decide whether, in accordance with the almost unanimous opinion of physical astronomers, the corona is a self-luminous liquid or solid body, or only reflected sunlight.

Prof. Langley, stationed at Pike's Peak, Colorado, reports that he "saw the corona elongated;" that it "resembled the zodiacal light." Further, that he "followed it a distance of twelve diameters of the sun on one side and three on the other." This observation, if confirmed (and we may observe that none of the other astronomers appear to have confirmed it), would go to prove an extension of the corona into space about five times greater than the highest estimate hitherto made. Search was made during the eclipse for an intra-mercurial planet. Herein only one of the observers, Prof. Watson, claims to have been successful: he reports having discovered an intra-mercurial planet, of magnitude four and a half, in right ascension eight hours twenty-six minutes; declination north 18°. The solar protuberances were much less prominent than in most recent eclipses.

Prof. Colbert, of Chicago, stationed at Denver, Colorado, reports that his observations tend to show that the moon's path in the heavens lay a little farther to the southward than is indicated by the lunar tables, or else that the estimate of the moon's diameter is too large. Possibly both suppositions are correct. Of Edison's "tasimeter," Mr. Lockyer writes from Rawlins:

"The tasimeter, the new instrument on which Edison has been working unceasingly here, has proved its delicacy. During the eclipse he attached it to Thomson's galvanometer, which was set to zero. When the telescope carrying the tasimeter was pointed several degrees from the sun, the point of light rapidly