National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1879-08-30
MISCELLANEOUS,
Historical EoiIpses Of the sun.

In $50, 567 and 626 we find mention Of long
periods Of diminished sunlight. Scbnurrer
records that In 1888 a year after the Saracons
had been driven back beyond the Pyrenees,
consequent on their defeat at Tours, " the sun
darkened In an alarming manner on August
18th there appeared to be no eclipse by tho
moon, but rather an interruption from some
meteoric substance" There was an eclipse of
the sun, annular, but nearly total ON the morn
ing of August Nth it is mentioned in the
Saxon Chroniclc,which tells us that the SUMS
disc was like black shield" Tho near
coincidence of dates suggests In this case
connection between the darkness and tho
eclipse. In O34, according to Portuguese his
toran, the sun lost its ordinary light for sew
eral months, and this is followed by the doubt
ful statement that an opening in the sky
seemed to take place. with many flashes of
lightning, and the full blaze of sunshine was
suddenly restored. In 1901, on September 90
not 81, rs given in some of the TRANSACTIONS of
Humboldt's "Cosmo s"-Schnurrer relates that
there was darkening of the sun which lasted
three hours, after which IL had n peculiar
color, which occasoned great alarm. in am
other place we read: "Fuit eclpsis Soils III.
Kal. Octob. icre tres horcs Sol circa merdiem
dire nigrescobat." There was no visible eclipse
at this time, and the November eclipse was
central only in the southern parts Of the
earth.
A century later Tor In June, 1l0l, according
to Schnurrer) the sun was again darkened,
with certain attendant effects upon nature
Here the cause is easily found OH June q
there was a total eclipse in which the moons
shadow traversed the continent of Europe
from Holland to tho Crimea the eclipse
was total in this country between the coasts
oil Cumberland and Yorkshire; Erman refers
TO sun-darkening on February 12, 1l06,
which was accompanied by moteors, and we
read in the cometographes that on the 4th Tor,
according to others, on the 5th) of February
IN this year star was seen from the
third to the ninth hour of the day, which
was distant from the sun "only foot aud
half" Matthew Of Paris and Matthew of West
minister term this star a comet, and wo may
take IL TO have been the same which, lator In
the same month, was observed In China under
the sign Pisces, and which, at one time, was
supposed to have been identical with the
great comet of 1850. This body however,
would not appear to have been sufi-
GENTLY near the earth as, even on the as
sumption OF denser constitution than usual
with comets, TO account for diminutiOn of
the solar rays by its Intervention. On tho
last day of February, 1905, according to a
Spanish writer, there was complete darkness
forsix hours. In 1911, give months after
the Mongol battle OF Leignitz," the sun was
so obscured aud the darkness became so
great that the stars were seen at the ninth
hour about Mchaelmas. In this case again,
the darkness referred to was undoubtedly due
to the total eclipse on October q, of which
Professor Schiaparelli has collected full ac-
count from the Italian writers, Lastly, in
1Si7, from April 1925, Kepler relates on the
authority of Comma, "the sun appeared as
though sufrused with blood, aud many stars
were visible at monday" Schnurror thought
this phenomenon was what the Germans call
II "Hohenrauch,' Notwithstanding visibility
of stars. From the above brief summary Of
what have been considered sun.darkenings
we see that in several cases the dimunition of
light has been due to the ordinary effects of a
total eclipse, while it is clear that there are
no grounds in the historical evidence for any
prediction of period Of darkness. The nerv-
GUS in these matters, aud it would really APP
pear that such exist, may take consolation
thereirom.-J. Il. Hind, in Ndhre.