_Pierre Jules César Janssen_, born in Paris in 1824, was stationed at Guntoor, in India, to observe the eclipse. He succeeded in observing the spectrum of the prominences during the progress of totality, and found it to be one of bright lines, proving the gaseous nature of the sun-flames. During the progress of the eclipse, Janssen was specially struck by the brilliancy of the bright lines, and it occurred to him that the prominence-spectrum could be observed in full daylight, if sufficient dispersive power was used to enfeeble the ordinary continuous spectrum. At ten o’clock on the following morning, August 19, 1868, Janssen applied his spectroscope to the sun, and observed the prominence-spectrum. After a month’s observation in India, he sent to the French Academy an account of his success. A short time, however, before his report arrived, the Academy had received a similar one from Lockyer, who had independently made the same discovery. Two years previously, in 1866, the new method had occurred to him, but his spectroscope was not powerful enough; and although he ordered a more powerful one at once, it was not until October 16, 1868, that he had the instrument in his hands. Four days later he observed the prominence-spectrum in full daylight. The next advance in the study of the prominences was announced in 1869. Janssen and Lockyer had shown astronomers how to observe the spectrum of the prominences; but the researches of other two famous astronomers enabled observers to see the forms of the prominences. These two men were _William Huggins_ (born 1824) and _Johann Carl Friedrich Zöllner_. The latter astronomer, born in Leipzig in 1834, was one of the most successful students of the solar prominences. He was Professor of Astrophysics in the University of Leipzig, a position which he filled with success until his untimely death on April 25, 1882. Independently of Huggins, he found that by opening the slit of the spectroscope wider, the forms of the prominences themselves could be seen. The study of the prominences was at once taken up by the most famous solar observers: these were Huggins and Lockyer in England, Spörer and Zöllner in Germany, Janssen in France, Secchi, Respighi, and Tacchini in Italy, Young in America. To _Charles Augustus Young_ (born 1834) we owe the careful study of individual prominences. On September 7, 1871, he observed the most gigantic outburst on the sun ever witnessed, fragments of an exploded prominence reaching a height of 100,000 miles: Young, also, made the first attempt to photograph the prominences.