Part 1

ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH

ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH

A SERIES OF

Familiar Essays on Scientific Subjects

BY RICHARD A. PROCTOR

NEW IMPRESSION

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON

NEW YORK AND BOMBAY

1903

All rights reserved

'Let knowledge grow from more to more'

TENNYSON

PREFACE.

It is scarcely necessary for me to explain the plan of the present work, because I have already--in introducing my 'Light Science for Leisure Hours,' my 'Science Byways,' and my 'Pleasant Ways in Science'--described the method on which, as I think, such treatises as the present should be written. This work deals with similar subjects in a similar way; but I think the experience I have acquired in writing other works on the same plan has enabled me to avoid some defects in the present work which I have recognised in the others.

The list of subjects indicates sufficiently the range over which the present volume extends. Some of them might be judged by their names to be in no way connected with science, but it will be found that none have been treated except in their scientific significance, though in familiar and untechnical terms.

RICHARD A. PROCTOR.

S.S. 'ARIZONA,' IRISH SEA October 18, 1879.

CONTENTS.

PAGE THE SUN'S CORONA AND HIS SPOTS 1

SUN-SPOTS AND COMMERCIAL PANICS 26

NEW PLANETS NEAR THE SUN 32

RESULTS OF THE BRITISH TRANSIT EXPEDITIONS 58

THE PAST HISTORY OF OUR MOON 81

A NEW CRATER IN THE MOON 98

THE NOVEMBER METEORS 111

EXPECTED METEOR SHOWER 117

COLD WINTERS 125