given, has been obligingly placed at my disposal by Mrs. G. M. Patmore. Whilst the latter portions of this work have been passing through the press, a very important discussion has been carried on in the French Academy of Sciences, in which nearly every question raised by the new method of research in solar physics has been debated. I much regret that it has been impossible to include a notice of it in the present volume. may, however, be remarked as satisfactory to English Science, that M. Faye, abandoning the theory of spots of which an account will be found in Chapter IV., has virtually adopted, in the essential point, that proposed by the English Observers. It My best thanks are due to the Proprietors of the Journals I have named for the readiness with which permission has been granted me to reprint; while in the matter of illustrations I have to express my obligations to the Council of the Royal Society; to Dr. Schellen, of Cologne, for the use of several woodcuts illustrating my own observations, the original drawings of which I sent over to him in 1869; to Mr. Westermann, of Leipsig, who added others to them; and to Professor Roscoe, who has allowed me the use of several which appear in his "Spectrum Analysis." I am much indebted to Mr. Cooper for the care he has taken in the preparation of the plates and new woodcuts. In the compilation of the Notes, and in revision of proof-sheets, my assistant Mr. R. J. Friswell has given me most valuable aid. Up to the present time the spectroscopic examination of the sun has been regarded as the work of the astronomer and physicist, rather than of the chemist; and in England, though happily not abroad, many professional astronomers and physicists regard it, as a rule, as a matter of tenth-rate importance. I am sanguine enough to hope that, as time goes on, breadth of mind will take the place of the present more than apathy, and that chemists also will more generally interest themselves in, and aid, an inquiry from which, if I am not mistaken, they will learn much. I cannot conclude this Preface without stating that had it not been for the aid afforded me by that admirable, but too little known, institution, the Government Grant Fund, and by my friend Dr. Frankland, who joined me in a branch of the research and generously placed his laboratory at my disposal, my observations would probably never have been made. Further, I admit and lament the incompleteness of them and of the book to which I have now consigned them. I know that the work I have attempted to forward requires a man who can give himself entirely up to it, while, less fortunate than many lovers of Science, the only time I have had to devote to these inquiries has consisted of fragments snatched from the leisure left me by my official duties. I have, however, the satisfaction of knowing that the method of observation which I have had a share in originating is rapidly taking root in other lands, and that it is being recognized as national work which the Janssens, Youngs, Respighis, Zöllners and Secchis of the future will carry on without break, for the instruction and benefit of mankind. Sept. 6th, 1873. J. NORMAN LOCKYER. CONTENTS. In part reprinted with alterations) from the Reader, vol. iii. p. 79. 194 The remainder consists of a paper communicated to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1865, and printed in Monthly Notices, vol. An article written m conjunction with Dr. Balfour Stewart, FRS. Reprinted from Macmillan's Magazine, vol. xviii. p. 319, 1868. |