370 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



ciers, which yet possess a certainly higher temperature. Cold, and 

 other unknown causes, may have absorbed and fixed all the atmos- 

 phere which anciently existed, as we see that the immense atmosphere 

 which anciently surrounded the earth has been fixed by several chem- 

 ical processes, and reduced to its actual composition ; and it might 

 be possible that this actually existing atmosphere of ours should be 

 all solidified, either by cold or chemical processes, if the earth ar- 

 rives at the same degree of cold which seems to have place on the 

 moon. 



METEROLOGICAL INFLUENCE OF THE SOLAR SPOTS. 



M. R. Wolf, in a communication to the Academy, Compies Rendus 

 xxxv., gives the following abstract of his Memoir upon the connection 

 of the Solor Spots with terrestrial magnetism, &c. He observes, 



" In the first chapter I have shown (founded upon sixteen different 

 epochs, established by the minimum and maximum of the solar spots) 

 that the mean period of these spots may be put at 11-11 -}- 0,038 years, 

 nine periods being equivalent to a century. In the second chapter I 

 have established, that in each century the years 00, 11-11, 22-22, 

 33-33, 44-44, 55-56, 66-67, 77-78, 88-89, correspond to the minimum 

 of the solar spots, the interval between the minimum and maximum is 

 variable, the mean being five, years. The third chapter contains an 

 enumeration of all the observations of the solar spots, from Fabricius 

 and Scheiner to Schawbe. The fourth chapter shows the remarkable 

 analogies between the solar spots and variable stars, from which an 

 intimate connection may be presumed between these singular pheno- 

 mena. In the fifth chapter I have shown that my period of 11-111 

 years corresponds more exactly with the variations in magnetic decli- 

 nation, than the period of 10^- years established by M. Lament. The 

 magnetic variations accompany the solar spots not only in their regular 

 changes, but even in their minor irregularities : this latter fact is itself 

 sufficient to prove definitely the important relations between them. 

 The sixth chapter gives a comparison between the period of the solar 

 spots, and the meteorological phenomena contained in a Swiss Chroni- 

 cle for the period 1000 1800. It results (conformable to the idea of 

 Sir William Herschel) that the years in which the spots are most 

 numerous, are generally drier and more productive than the others, 

 the latter being more humid and showery. The auroras and earth- 

 quakes, indicated in the Chronicle, increase in a striking manner in 

 the years of the spots. 



INDICATIONS OF WEATHER AS SHOWN BY ANIMALS, INSECTS, 



AND PLANTS. 



The following interesting communication was made to the American 

 Association, Cleveland, by Mr. W. B. Thomas, of Cincinnati, Ohio. 



The possibility of foretelling weather has occupied the attention of 

 observers of natural facts, from the earliest period of our records ; the 



