Abstract
YOUR correspondent, Mr. Earwaker, should have mentioned that the list of appearances of the Aurora Borealis given in M. de Mairan's work is chiefly derived from another enumeration in Prof. Frobes's “Nova et Antiqua Luminis atque Auroræ Borealis Spectacula,” Helmstadii, 1739. On reference to this list it immediately appears that it is very little to be relied upon for displays previous to the year 1707 or thereabouts. Some of the appearances recorded rest on no good authority, others were obviously meteoric; some occurred within the Arctic circles, others are entered twice over from inadvertence, or a neglect to allow for the difference of style; more than twenty are recorded on the authority of the meteorological diary kept at Breslau by Grebner, who in fact says nothing more than that on those occasions the night was somewhat bright (sublustris). When the necessary deductions on these accounts have been made, it will be found that the infrequency of the phenomena prior to 1707, and its extraordinary development since that date, are well-established facts. They are strongly insisted upon by M. de Mairan himself, who does not produce more than five instances of the aurora in France during the whole of the seventeenth century, and shows from the evidence of a missionary that it was unknown or forgotten in China until 1718. All contemporary notices prior to about this period, attest the astonishment with which it was regarded.
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G., R. Early Mentions of the Aurora Borealis. Nature 3, 105 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/003105b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/003105b0
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