PHENOMENA MANIFESTED IN TELEGRAPHIC LINES, ETC. 305 



communicate to the heat of the lesnltirig compound ray the penetrating 

 character Avhich distinguishes the solar cak)ritic rays. We may also 

 observe that the tranquillity of the sun's polar, as compared with its 

 equatorial regions, (if its spots be really atmospheric,) cannot be ac- 

 counted for by its rotation on its axis only, but miist arise from some 

 cause external to the sun, as we see the belts of Jupiter and Saturn, and 

 our trade-winds, arise from a cause external to these planets, combining 

 itself with their rotation, which alone can produce no motions when 

 once the form of equilibrium is attained. 



" The i>rismatic analysis of the solar beam exhibits in the spectrum a 

 series of fixed lines, totally unlike those which belong to the light of 

 any known terrestrial flame. This may, hereafter, lead us to a clearer 

 insight into its origin."* 



Though science cannot prove directly that electrical currents travel 

 through the planetary spaces, yet there exist not a few data which 

 seem to indicate sufficiently that certain phenomena which take place 

 in the sun and the planets depend on the distance and the position of 

 the latter with respect to the sun and with respect to themselves. 



Galileo, in one of his letters, says : " The fact that the spots of the 

 sun are on that belt of the solar globe which is under that part of the 

 heavens through which the planets travel, and nowhere else, is an indi- 

 cation that those planets may have something to do with that iesult."t 

 This suggestion of Galileo, that the phenomena of the solar spots may 

 have some connection with the position of the planets, has remained 

 unnoticed for nearly two centuries and a half, until lately new facts 

 have come to light which indicate its importance. 



In 1859, Mr. Wolf undertook to investigate whether the phenomena 

 of the solar spots varied with the distances of the planets from the sun, 

 and he reached results which generally tend to prove that, with the 

 change of those distances, and especially with those of Jupiter, the 

 number of solar spots also changes within certain limits. Mr. Carring- 

 ton, in his work on the solar spots, published in 18G3, presented the 

 results of a similar research, and having determined the number of sohir 

 spots observed every year from 1750 to 1800, he compared them with 

 the distances of Jupiter from the sun, and concludes that according as 

 Jupiter moves away from the sun the number of solar spots increases, 

 and when Jupiter approaches the sun the number of spots decreases. 



Professor Loomis has lately announced that the decennial period of 

 the solar spots, instead of corresponding with the distance of Jupiter 

 alone, has a nearer and more regular correspondence with another 

 period which can be found by comparing together the movements of 

 Jupiter and of Saturn. These two planets, in fact, occupy in space 



* A remarkable prediction, well worthy of atteutiou as au evidence of the sagacity 

 of this eminent savant to whom i!? is due. — J. H. 



tLettera seconda di Galilei a Marco Valseri ; uuovamente pnbblicata dal Prof. P. 

 Volpicelli. Roma, tipogratia dclle Belle Arti, 18G0. 

 20 s 



