1870-80] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 171 
Director of the Madras Observatory, the Astronomer Royal 
consenting to act as an intermediary. It was, however, proposed 
by Mr. Lockyer, Mr. De la Rue seconding, that the Imperial and 
Indian Governments should be asked to provide facilities for a 
few competent observers, who might volunteer, to proceed to India 
and Ceylon free of expense to make observations at those places. 
A Committee was appointed to consider this proposal, and at a 
meeting on June 28 it was resolved that the observations should 
be limited to a complete examination of the corona, and that Mr. 
Huggins and Mr. Lockyer should be asked whether they would 
go to India to undertake this. At a subsequent meeting of the 
Committee on July 7, at which Mr. Lockyer was present, it was 
reported that Mr. Huggins could not go, but Mr. Lockyer expressed 
his willingness to do so if he could get leave from his duties. He also 
mentioned that he knew that the officers of the Royal Society were 
prepared to join the Royal Astronomical Society Committee in 
applying to the Treasury for a grant, and gave the outlines of a 
scheme of observation that he had prepared, which included 
spectroscopic as well as photographic observations of the corona. 
The Committee resolved that they had no power to form part of 
a joint Committee, and adhered to their resolution of June 28, 
that only a complete examination of the corona, not comprising 
spectroscopic work, should be attempted. To this Mr. Lockyer 
would not agree, and he declined to go. Under these circumstances 
it was decided to proceed no further in the matter, and the organ 
isation of observation of the eclipse passed into the hands of the 
British Association. At the Annual Meeting of the Association, 
which was held at Edinburgh in that year, a Committee was formed, 
Lassell, De la Rue, Airy, Stokes, and Lockyer being the active 
members, to take in hand matters relating to the eclipse. A grant of 
£2000 was obtained from the Government, and eventually an observ 
ing party went to Ceylon under the leadership of Mr. Lockyer, and 
met with complete success. Arrangements for observation of the 
eclipse in India were put in the hands of Major J. F. Tennant 
by the Indian Government, who provided the necessary resources. 
This expedition, and those sent out by other Governments to 
various stations on the line of totality, were equally successful, 
but the observers in Australia were not favoured 'with good 
weather conditions. 
It seems appropriate to mention here the origin of the volume 
of the Society’s Memoirs ( 41 ) known generally as the Eclipse 
Volume. It w’as the outcome of a suggestion by Airy, that the 
results obtained by the observers of the eclipses of i860 and 1870, 
who were subsidised by the Government, should be published at 
public expense. The Treasury refused to grant funds for the