CHAPTER III. 



THE SUN. 



FOUR years after the death of Herschel, an 

 apothecary in the little German town of Dessau 

 procured a small telescope, with which he began 

 to observe the Sun. The name of this apothe- 

 cary was Samuel Heinrich Schwabe (1789-1875). 

 In 1826 he commenced to observe the spots on 

 the Sun's disc, counting them from day to day, 

 more for self- amusement than from any hope of 

 discovery ; for previous astronomers had agreed 

 that no law regulated the number of the sun- 

 spots. Every clear day Schwabe pointed his 

 telescope at the Sun and took his record of the 

 spots ; this he continued for forty-three years, 

 until within a few years of his death on 

 April 11, 1875. As early as 1843 Schwabe 

 hinted that a possible period of ten years regu- 

 lated the distribution of the spots on the Sun, 

 but no attention was given to his idea. In 

 1851, however, the result of his twenty -six 



