ASTRONOMICAL JARGON AS APPLIED TO ECLIPSE- PHENOMENA.
OF all the sciences, astronomy is that which appeals most to the imagination. The wonders disclosed by astronomical researches have been held not unworthy the muse of Homer and Virgil, of Chaucer and Spencer, of Shakespeare and Milton, of Byron, Shelley, and Tennyson. The true astronomer should be himself by nature a poet, or he will not be inspired with all the enthusiasm which his science demands. We would not indeed affirm that astronomy has not its unpoetical aide. A table from the Nautical Almanac is scarcely calculated to rouse to poetic phrensy even the most imaginative mind ; nor do the ponderous terms used in astronomical calculations, latitude and longitude,
"And sine and arc, spheroid and azimuth, And right ascension—Heaven knows what."
seem wholly unsuited to the dryness of the special department of astronomy to which they relate. But the great truths (and also, it may be said, the great untruths) of astronomy appeal chiefly to the imaginative faculties. We cannot speak of them without being im- pelled to throw on one side the dull, dry terms which belong to astro- nomy as a science of calculation. The powers of language seem, indeed, to fail us as we endeavour to express the full grandeur of the lessons taught by astrono:ny, nod no words are significant enough, speaking enough, to serve our purpose.
It would seem to be in forgetfulness of this circumstance that of late an attempt has been made to assign to some of the most striking features revealed by modern researches, names wholly inexpressive and unmeaning. There are no phenomena more wonderful, none which appeal more directly to the imagination, than those associated with the occurrence of total solar eclipses. When it was believed that Tennyson would accompany the eclipse expeditions, it was felt that even his powers of poetical description would scarcely suffice to present in all its impressive grandeur the wondrous scene disclosed when the last fine sickle of the sun's disc is concealed from view. The gloom which enshrouds all nature, the varying colours which sweep over the horizon, the apparent closing-in of the celestial vault, these features and others of a like nature the poet might indeed describe. But who could convey in words the import of those coloured prominences ? Who could adequately describe their delicacy and beauty, while at the same time he should convey just impressions of the real mag- nificence of the scale on which they are constructed?
And again, that sierra of coloured light which forms a gorgeous are round the dark disc of the moon, seen first but for a few momenta on the side towards which the moon is moving, appear- ing on the other side just before the return of the sun's light, —who could properly picture the splendour of its tint contrasted with the rich velvet black of the moon's globe ? If Bally Beads have justly been compared to a string of pearls, so this ruddy sierra, which comes into view just after the beads have vanished, is fairly comparable to a setting of garnet around a brooch of jet. But besides its singular beauty, its real extent and something of the wondrous processes which take place within its substance would have to be pictured by the poet, and even a Shakespeare or a Milton might fairly shrink from the task of justly presenting relations so strangely contrasted.
But what shall be said of the corona ? A radiance so splendid as to be visible before the sun is wholly concealed, so bright, indeed, close by the dark disc of the moon, that in some eclipses the naked eye has been unable to bear its splendour, grandly irregu- lar in figure, and indeed apparently with so amazing an inherent vitality (if one may so speak) as to coruscate under the eye of the observer, this amazing phenomenon has deservedly attracted the admiration of all who have ever beheld it. We can understand how the Spaniards who stood beside Lieutenant Gilliss during the total eclipse of 1858 in Peru, were impelled by the mere magnificence of the corona to throw themselves on their knees as though believing that the very Godhead were revealed to them, while, despite the injunctions which had been issued for a strict silence, they gave vent to their enthusiasm in cries of "La Gloria! la Gloria !"
It is to phenomena such as these that a few dry-souled astro- nomical observers (one can really hardly speak of them, despite their skill, as true astronomers) propose to give names as barbarous as those by which ingenious tradesmen designate their wares.
Let us briefly trace the matter to its origin.
Many years since, the eminent German astronomer Schwabe devised for the sun's luminous surface the not inapt term of photosphere. The word was not only appropriate so far as Schwabe's special purpose was concerned, but there was no objection to it even as respects the requirements of descriptive astronomy, since it had a particular application apart altogether from the relations which descriptive astronomy deals with. It is a word indeed which would be much missed if astronomers were unwise enough to remove it from their vocabulary.
But the case was different when, in 1868, it was proposed that the coloured sierra, which forms a layer below the solar prominences, should be called the chromosphere. It is now known that the name was suggested in ignorance of the facts that the layer had been discovered many years earlier, and had received the convenient and expressive name the sierra, a name harmonizing admirably with the title given by general consent to the coloured prominences. But apart from this, there remains the fact that the word " chromosphere " is altogether unsuited for the purposes ofdescription. Taking even its significance as a Greek compound it is unfit for the purpose, since the envelope or layer it is applied to is by no means spherical. Lastly, it is not even correctly formed, the true compound from chrome and sphaira being chromatosphere.
This word had, however, been passively admitted. No one seems to have thought it his duty to interfere, and so the atrocious novelty was permitted to take its place in our books on astronomy.
But give these word-makers an inch, and you surely find they will take their ell. As if the word " chromoaphere " had not been a sufficient attack upon our susceptibilities, we now have a yet more unseemly word —lezecosphere—given to the lower or brighter part of the corona. This word may be philologically and scientifically appropriate. It is true leuk.os means white and sphaira means a sphere, and the lower corona happens to be neither white (under favourable circumstances it has always presented a reddish colour) nor spherical. But let us admit for argument's sake that in all other respects it is highly appropriate. Nor let us cavil because as respects the sound of the word the uninitiated might imagine a wolf-sphere was in question. It is on higher grounds, for m3thetic reasons, that we oppose ourselves to this atrocious invention. The astronomers will find the outside world abandoning them if they adopt such a hideous mode of nomen- clature. We can allow our tradesmen to call their wares by such names as suit their taste. No one need be troubled if he has to wipe his feet on a door-mat with a sesquipedal Greek title, or to light his rooms by means of candles having some barbariphonic name. But it is too bad when the glories and wonders of astro- nomy are thus rendered hideous and unmeaning. Let astronomers look to it, and while there is yet time make a clean sweep of the jargon which is so painful to all who are impressed with a sense of the grandeur of the lessons taught by astronomical researches.
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