170 
HISTORY OF THE 
[1870-80 
On December 6 the Urgent left Portsmouth, taking three parties, 
made up chiefly of Fellows of the Society under the leadership of 
the Rev. S. Perry, Captain Parsons, R.E., and Mr. Huggins, bound 
respectively for Cadiz, Gibraltar, and Oran, in Algeria, and with 
them were Professor and Mrs. S. Newcomb. Another expedition 
under the leadership of Mr. Lockyer, comprising amongst others, 
Professor Roseoe, Mr. Darwin, Mr. Vignoles, and Mr. Ranyard, 
went by overland route to Naples, and left that port to cross to 
Catania (Sicily) in H.M.S. Psyche. Unfortunately the vessel struck 
on a rock near Catania, but all hands, and the instruments, were 
saved without injury. Lord Lindsay, who was not then a Fellow 
of the Society, took an observing party at his own expense to Cadiz. 
On the day of the eclipse the sky was more or less obscured by 
cloud at all the stations. At Cadiz and at Syracuse successful 
photographs of the corona were obtained, as well as some spectrum 
and polarisation observations, but at Oran nothing was seen of 
the eclipse at totality. The photographs of the corona taken at 
Syracuse by Mr. Brothers with a rapid rectilinear photographic 
lens, showed great extensions and were considered specially 
successful. 
As indication of the state of knowledge of the sun’s surroundings 
at the time, it may be remarked that at the meeting in 1870 June 
a paper by Mr. Seabroke “ On the determination whether the Corona 
is a Terrestrial or Solar Phenomenon,” led to a discussion on this 
fundamental point in Solar Astronomy. Mr. Lockyer’s “ theory 
of a terrestrial origin of the corona ” was spoken of, the reference 
probably being to an article by him in the first number of Nature, 
in which he said, “ Since that time I confess the conviction, that 
the corona is nothing else than an effect, due to the passage of 
sunlight through our own atmosphere near the moon’s place, has 
been growing stronger and stronger.” Dr. Gould, the American 
astronomer, who was at the meeting, spoke of his observations 
during the eclipse of 1869 August 7, and said that he thought the 
symmetry of the corona about the sun’s axis of rotation pointed 
to the fact that it was of solar origin, and that the trapezoidal 
corona might be nothing more than the chromosphere seen under 
unusually favourable circumstances, but he was inclined to think 
that the light outside that four-cornered corona which appeared 
to shift in position was an effect of our atmosphere. 
The Society as a body took a less active part in the arrange 
ments for the observation of the solar eclipse of 1871 December 
12, on which occasion the line of totality crossed India, Ceylon, 
and Australia. The subject was brought before the Council at 
their meeting in June, when it was at first suggested that the 
Indian arrangements should be left in the hands of Mr. Pogson,