8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



solar radiations for the most favorable evidence of that resolvability of 

 our so-called elements to simpler forms, which our chemists are now 

 very generally ready to admit as possible. 



It is in the solar spectrum that we are now searching for the laws 

 of the molecular groupings which affect the ultimate constitution of 

 matter, and in recent questions as to the real nature of certain ter- 

 resti-ial elements, which our laboratories can not yet deal with, the 

 Mount Sherman observations of Professor Young on the appearance 

 of their analogues in the sun have been accepted by both parties in 

 debates before the Royal Society, as pertinent evidence, the only doubt 

 as to which lies in its interpretation. 



Of problems " practical " in the sense that their utility is apparent 

 alike to the learned and the unlearned, there are two at least of the 

 highest importance which now occupy us. 



The solar heat, which grows for us the food by which we live, is 

 no doubt in one sense the final cause of every meteorological change, 

 bringing those years of want and years of plenty which are due to 

 local variations of climate, that depend, through a chain of causes very 

 remote and obscure, no doubt, yet finally, upon the sun. We have 

 seen the magnetic needles vibrating all OA^er the globe together at the 

 time of a sudden commotion upon the solar surface ; we watch the in- 

 crease and decrease of auroras, and find we can almost predict their 

 frequency, so apparently united are they by some mysterious bond 

 with the changes of solar spots ; and we look with natural hope for 

 other signs of union which may enable us to anticipate more impor- 

 tant effects on our meteorology. Extreme pains have been devoted 

 — in some cases misdevoted — to researches aiming to establish such a 

 connection, by collecting data as to the changes in rainfall, the move- 

 ments of storms, the prices of grain, and of almost every feature of 

 terrestrial meteorology, in order to see whether these run through 

 periods coincident with those of known changes on the solar surface. 

 It will be admitted by the most utilitarian that the end aimed at is 

 a worthy one, for the practical result of success, such as some be- 

 lieve possible, would be to enable its attainer to predict the price of 

 breadstuffs years in advance, to control the markets of the world ; to 

 bestow, if unselfish, an almost priceless knowledge to man, or, if self- 

 seeking, to acquire wealth beyond wish. 



I need hardly say that the attempt has thus far been unsuccessful. 

 There is hardly any topic on which there is more popular interest, 

 hardly any on which there is more popular error, than this of the sup- 

 posed influence of the sun on the weather. By means of the study of 

 what Professor Sraythe terms the "rain-band" in the spectrum, we 

 appear to have lately gained increased facility in predicting local 

 weather-changes ; but, excepting this comparatively unimportant con- 

 tribution, studies connected with the sun have as yet done very little 

 for us here, and it seems necessary to say that, as far as prophecy is 



