ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGRESS. 



tain John Ericsson, by his elaborate demon- 

 strations, makes out the heat of the solar sur- 

 face to be, at least, 4,036,000 Fahr. Father 

 Secchi puts his estimate at 18,000,000 F.; 

 and others at not far from 2,000,000 F. ; but 

 Pouillet has gone to the other extreme, and 

 makes the solar temperature from 2,662 to 

 3,201 F. ; while M. Vicaire, the latest in the 

 field, is forced to the belief that the tempera- 

 ture of the solar surface is entirely comparable 

 with that of terrestrial planes, and is certain- 

 ly less than 5,500 F. He also goes over Fa- 

 ther Secchi's observations, and, correcting an 

 alleged error in the formula used by that 

 astronomer, determines the solar heat to be 

 2,548 F., which nearly agrees with Pouillet's 

 result. At the meeting of the French Acad- 

 emy, at which M. Vicaire made his statement, 

 he was sustained by MM. Sainte - Claire De- 

 ville and Edmond Becquerel ; and M. Fizeau 

 remarked that his conclusions were borne out 

 by photometrical experiments, which show 

 that the intensity of the Drummond light is 56 

 times less than that of the electric light, which 

 latter is only 2 times less intense than sun- 

 light, and it therefore follows (in his opinion) 

 that the temperature of these lights cannot 

 differ so excessively as has been supposed from 

 the temperature of the sun. 



The Surfs Rotation. Zollner and Vogel 

 have measured the velocity of the sun's rota- 

 tion by the* spectroscope. These observations 

 covered a period from the 2d to the 10th of 

 June, 1872. The instrument employed was 

 the reversion spectroscope of Zollner, attached 

 to the large refractor of the observatory at 

 Bothkamp, near Kiel. The slit of the spectro- 

 scope was directed by the aid of clock-work 

 to the receding edge of the sun, and the coin- 

 cidence of the D lines in the superposed spec- 

 tra effected with the utmost precision. The 

 clock-work was then stopped, and the moment 

 of the disappearance of the second border of 

 the sun observed the non- coincidence of the 

 D lines at the second border being distinctly 

 seen in all the observations. Other trials were 

 made with Schroder's dispersive spectroscope, 

 another line having been selected for the test. 

 The non-coincidence of this line, with a fixed 

 steel point, was distinctly observed when the 

 light came from the second border of the sun, 

 the coincidence for the first border having 

 been established. By measuring the amount 

 of displacement, Yogel found, for the motion 

 of a point on the sun's equator, a velocity of 

 0.42 German mile per second in one series of 

 observations, and 0.35 mile in a second series. 

 These velocities are greater than those at pres- 

 ent admitted. 



Sun-spots and the Cholera. In a paper read 

 before the British Historical Society, in April 

 last, Mr. B. G. Jenkins elaborately defended 

 his theory of the relation between sun-spots 

 and cholera- visitations. He exhibited a map 

 representing the amount of cholera, and the 

 number of sun-spots, for the past fifty years, for 



the purpose of showing that the minima and 

 maxima of the phenomena coincided. Af- 

 ter a reference to the eleven-year period of 

 sun-spots, tabulated by Prof. Wolf, from a pe- 

 riod as far back as 1611, the author went on 

 to say : 



Now, it is a curious fact that the last year of every 

 century, as 1800, has a minimum of sun-spots, so 

 that the minima are 1800, 1811.11, 1822.22, 1833-33, 

 etc. The maxima do not lie midway hetween the 

 minima, but anticipate it by falling on the year 4.77 

 after a minimum ; for example, 1800 was a minimum 

 year, then 1804.77 was a maximum year. Now, 

 cholera-epidemics have, I believe, a period equal to 

 a period and a half of sun-spots. Keckoning then 

 from 1800, we get as a period and a half the date 

 1816.66, which was shortly before the great Indian 

 outbreak ; another period and a half gives 1833.33, 

 a year in which there was a maximum of cholera ; 

 another, 1849.99, that is 1850, a year having a maxi- 

 mum of cholera; another, 1866.66, a year having a 

 maximum of cholera ; another, 1883.33, as the year in 

 which there will be a cholera maximum. It follows 

 from what has been already said that 1783.33 would 

 be a year in which cholera was at a maximum. Now 

 it is a fact that in April, 1783, there was a great out- 

 break of the disease at Hurdwar. 



I would call attention to the parallelism of increase 

 and decrease of these curves. I am not, however, 

 prepared to say that sun-spots originate cholera ; for 

 they may both be the effects of some other cause, 

 which may indeed be the action of the other planets 

 upon the earth and upon the sun. If that be the 

 case and I see no reason why it should not we may 

 then have an explanation of the minor periods and 

 of the large period of 56 years, which "Wolf believes 

 he has detected, and also of the minor periods ob- 

 served in cholera-epidemics. 



My own opinion, derived from an investigation of 

 the subject, is that each planet, in coming to and in 

 going from perihelion more especially about the 

 time of the equinoxes produces a violent action upon 

 the sun, and has a violent sympathetic action pro- 

 duced within itself internally manifested by earth- 

 quakes, and externally by auroral displays and vol- 

 canic eruptions, such as that of Vesuvius at the pres- 

 ent moment ; in fact, just such an action as develops 

 the tail of a comet when it is coming to and going 

 from perihelion ; and when two or more planets 

 happen to he coming to, or going from, perihelion at 

 the same time, and are in, or nearly in, the same 

 line with the sun being of course nearly in the 

 same plane the combined violent action produces 

 a maximum of sun-spots, and in connection with it 

 a maximum of cholera on the earth. The number 

 of deaths from cholera in any year for example, the 

 deaths in Calcutta during the six years 1865-' 70 

 increased as the earth passed from perihelion, espe- 

 cially after March 21st, came to a minimum when it 

 was in aphelion, and increased again when it passed 

 to perihelion, and notably after equinoctial-day; 

 thus affording a fair test of my theory. 



Sun-spots and the Vine- Crop. Mr. Arthur 

 Schuster communicates to Nature the results 

 of his observation on the supposed connection 

 between sun-spots and the excellence of the 

 vine-crops. The years of minimum sun-spots 

 coincide with good wine-years in Germany, 

 according to the author's statement ; and he 

 adds that the gentleman who first remarked 

 the regular recurrence of wine-years, at inter- 

 vals of about eleven years, was not aware of 

 the periodicity of the spots, and could ^not, 

 therefore, have been in any way prejudiced. 

 The table is as follows : 



