L62 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



face of Jupiter is, on the most reasonable supposition, 82.5 

 inches, and the pressure to the square inch 93 pounds. For 

 Saturn^ he finds the atmospheric pressure to be 18 pounds. 

 The heights of the atmospheres in miles, and pressures in 

 pounds per square inch, resulting from certain very reasona- 

 ble suppositions, are as follows: 



He remarks that the peculiar figure Sir William Herschel 

 found /Saturn to present which Bessel and others could not 

 discover, and which Airy could not explain is accounted for 

 without difficulty by the currents in his atmosphere, as will 

 be seen by consulting Mr. Ferrel's treatise. With reference 

 to the solar atmosphere, Mr. Trowbridge assumes that its 

 temperature is about 9,800,000, and that its density at the 

 surface of the sun is not greater than half the density of 

 hydrogen at the surface of the earth. On whatever assump- 

 tion we make, Mr. Trowbridge finds the solar atmosphere so 

 rare that we easily explain the rapid movements of the red 

 hydrogen flames that have been observed by the spectro- 

 scope. 



Meteorology, as well .as Astronomy and Natural History, 

 has a common interest in the questions of cosmogony; and 

 upon the fundamental question as to the origin of the rota- 

 tion of the earth, sun, and planets, considerable light is 

 thrown by an investigation (published in the Bulletin of the 

 Royal Academy of Belgium) of C. Lagrange, on the influence 

 of the form of bodies on their attractions. He concludes 

 that the revolution of the satellites in their orbits about 

 their primaries has determined the direction and velocity of 

 rotation of the latter, and similarly the planets have deter- 

 mined the rotation of the sun. Should these results be gen- 

 erally accepted, they must prove to be a very material con- 

 tribution to a modified form of Laplace's nebular hypothesis. 



TEMPERATURE. 



A very complete memoir, by Chr. Wiener, on the radia- 

 tion received by the earth from the sun, is published in the 



