Wolf, Millheilungcn über die Soniienffecken. 27^^ 



zur Ausfiilining meines Vorliabens tönnlich aulo^efor- 

 dert. Naclideiu niimlicl» Herr Johnson durch eine Reihe 

 von Citaten nachzuweisen gesucht, dass die altern 

 Astronomen durchaus nichts gesetzmässiges in dem 

 Auftreten der Sonnenflecken zu finden wussten , zeigt 

 er, wie Schwabe durch seine langjährigen Beobach- 

 tungen Ordnung in das scheinbare Chaos brachte, - 

 erwähnt auch anerkennend die bestätigenden Beobach- 

 tungsreihen von Schmidt!) und mir, und fährt dann 

 fort: „But we are naturally led to inquire whether 

 we can connect them with the Statements of former ob- 

 servers. Professor Wolf, who has entered deeply into 

 the general question, published a few years ago, in 

 the Memoirs of the Philosophical Society of 

 Berne, all the notices he was able to find, scattered 

 in books and memoirs , from the time of the discovery 

 of the spots in 1611: and from a comparison of them 

 with more modern determinations he deduced a period 

 11,1 years. VVithout depreciating the industry and 

 ingenuity displayed in that paper, I confess I am not 

 disposed to place much reliance on the result, owing 

 to the insufficient data on wich it appears to me to 

 be founded. The inquiry is rendered very difficult, 

 because the old obs ervers attended much more to the 

 physical characteristics of the spots , and to their time 

 of rotation, than to their number. Moreover, I know 

 only of Scheiner and Derham who observed them con- 

 tinuously for any length of time — that is to say, for 

 more than two or three years. Scheiner's attention 

 was almost exclusively directed to physical peculia- 



') Ich M'erde bei einer spätem Gelegenbeil auT die lieobacti* 

 tiingon ilißseii vordienten Astronomen zurückkommen. 



