British Assov'iation. 391 



black spots wLich lay diiQctly in their paths. Momentary as 

 this remarkable phenomenon was, it was fortunately witnessed and 

 confirmed, as to one of the bright lights, by another observer, Mr. 

 Hodgson, at Highgate, who, by a happy coincidence, had also 

 his telescope directed to the great luminary at the same instant. 

 It may be, therefore, that these two gentlemen have actually wit- 

 nessed the process of feeding the Sun, by the fall of meteoric 

 matter ; but however this may be, it is a remarkable circum- 

 stance, that the observations at Kew show that on the very day, 

 and at the very hour and minute of this unexpected and curious 

 phenomenon, a moderate but marked magnetic disturbance took 

 place; and a storm or great disturbance of the magnetic elements 

 occurred four hours after midnifrht, extendinor to the southern 

 hemisphere. Thus is exhibited a seeming connection between 

 magnetic phenomena and certain actions taking place on the sun's 

 disc — a connection, which the observations of Schwabe, compared 

 with the magnetical records of our Colonial Observatories, had 

 already rendered nearly certain. The remarkable results derived 

 fi'om the comparison of the magnetical observations of Captain 

 Maguire on the shores of the Polar Sea, with the contemporaneous 

 records of these Observatories, have been described bv me on a 

 former occasion. The delay of the Government in re-establishing 

 the Colonial Observatories has hitherto retarded that further de- 

 velopment of the magnetic laws, which would doubtless have re- 

 suited from the prosecution of such researches. 



We may derive an important lesson from the facts above al- 

 luded to. Here are striking instances in which independent ob- 

 servations of natural phenomena have been strangely and quite un- 

 expectedly connected together : this tends powerfully to prove, if 

 proof were necessary, that if we are really ever to attain to a 

 satisfactory knowledge of Nature's laws, it must be accomplished 

 by an assiduous watching of all her phenomena, in every depart- 

 ment into which Natural Science is divided. Experience shows 

 that such observations, if made with all those precautions which 

 long practice combined with natural acuteness teaches, often lead 

 to discoveries, which cannot be at all foreseen by the observers 

 though many years may elapse before the whole harvest is 

 reaped. 



Moon^s Motion. 

 A curious controversy has lately arisen on the subject of the 



