April /^, 1878) 



NA TURE 



443 



"The branches to be included under these different 

 departments we propose should be as follows : — 



" I. Literature and Philology should comprise the sub- 

 jects of Latin ; Greek ; and English Literature ; together 

 with one of the following subjects, viz. : Comparative 

 Philology ; Sanskrit ; Hebrew ; a Modern Language ; 

 Gaelic, with Celtic Philology. Questions on history and 

 geography incidental to each subject should form part of 

 the examination. 



"II. Philosophyshould include Logic and Metaphysics; 

 Ethics and Psychology ; and the Physiology of the Ner- 

 vous System. The first two subjects are understood to 

 embrace the History of Philosophy. 



"III. Law and History should include Civil Law; 

 either Constitutional Law or International Law ; and 

 Political Economy ; together with the history of any 

 one of the following groups, viz. : Greece and Rome ; 

 Modern Europe ; Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Arabia ; 

 India ; Ancient and Modern America. 



" IV. Mathematical Science should embrace Mathe- 

 matics, pure and applied ; Natural Philosophy ; and 

 Physical Astronomy. 



" V. Natural Science should comprehend four groups, 

 viz. : — (i) Applied Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, 

 and Chemistry ; (2) Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and 

 Physiology ; (3) Physiology, Botany, and Zoology ; (4) 

 Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and Geology. A candi- 

 date should be allowed to take any two of these four 

 groups ; and the practical working of the arrangement 

 would be that Natural Philosophy and Chemistry would 

 be compulsory, while any option would be given between 

 the mathematical and the morphological sciences. 



" It may be explained that the subjects of examination 

 in the sciences comprehended in Department V. are 

 such as are required in the first Bachelor of Science exa- 

 mination as detailed in the Calendars of the Universities of 

 Edinburgh and London (1877). The purpose we have had 

 in subdividing the subjects of Department V. into groups 

 has been, in the first place, to ensure a sound acquaint- 

 ance with Physics and Chemistry, which lie at the foun- 

 dation of all natural science ; and, in the second place, so 

 much being secured, to give fair play to individual intel- 

 lectual tastes and peculiarities. It is rare to find a man 

 equally capable of dealing with long chains of abstract 

 reasoning, or with experimental research, and of observ- 

 ing and remembering the analogies and differences of 

 form. The scientific aptitude, when strongly marked, is 

 either for mathematics, for experimental investigation, or 

 for morphology, rarely for all three. 



" In regard to the scientific subjects, mere book know- 

 ledge should not suffice ; practical work in the laboratory 

 should be essential." 



We are much mistaken if this Report does not produce 

 great irritation, amounting in many quarters to white heat 

 at least, and determined opposition. The dry husks of 

 speculative " philosophy " which, feebly existent even in 

 the present day (like Bunyan's Pope and Pa^aii), formed 

 so large an ingredient in the mental pabulum of Scottish 

 students in the past, are doomed to " cease from troub- 

 ling " : — but they will die hard. In their place will 

 come the still oppressed truths of modern science, and 

 the legitimate speculations which Experience and mathe- 

 matical power alone can enable the human mind to 

 originate and develop. 



SUN-SPOTS AND RAINFALL 



THE paper which we print from Mr. Meldrum this 

 week, appearing as it does within a few days of the 

 debate in the House of Commons on the Indian Famine 

 expenditure, is one which should be interesting to many 



besides professed meteorologists. It will, for one thing, 

 enable even the most unscientific among us to see the 

 manner in which men of science are striving to arrive at 

 the truths of nature the while the average Member of 

 Parliament only refers to their labours in order to sneer 

 at them even when their results may elucidate a question 

 of high national importance. 



Granting that the Member for Cambridge comes up to the 

 average of our legislators, let us see how he distinguished 

 himself on Tuesday. In his indictment of the policy of Sir 

 John Strachey, he was unwise enough to touch on the ques- 

 tion of the connection between sun-spots and the Indian 

 rainfall. "It appeared that, according to the astronomer 

 to the government at Madras, the absence of several 

 important spots [sic) on the sun's disc was connected with 

 the retarded rainfall." It is clear from this, we think, that 

 Mr. Smollett, in his ignorance of all things solar, instead 

 of taking a little trouble to inform himself, has built 

 up a mental image of the physics of our central 

 luminary, by likening it to the house of which we will 

 grant again he is one of the most prominent units. The 

 cause of the sun-spot minimum appears to him to be that 

 at this time " several important spots " — let us say the 

 Smolletts of the sun— are in the tea-room or at dinner, 

 anyhow they are absent from the division, and the opposi- 

 tion carries the day — that is, if Mr. Pogson is right, but he 

 proceeds to show that Mr. Pogson is wrong. 



Dr. Lyon Playfair, as was to be expected, put this 

 matter right before the house. He stated that " it was 

 established that famines in India came at periods when 

 sun-spots were not visible. Out of twenty-two great 

 observatories of the world it had been shown in eighteen 

 that the minimum rainfall was at times when there were 

 no spots on the sun. That was as true in Edinburgh as 

 in Madras, in St. Petersburg as in Australia. It was 

 therefore essential for the Government of India to take 

 that into consideration in calculating as to when famines 

 were likely to occur. The Secretary of State for India 

 had acted wisely in sending out photographers to the 

 Himalayas to take photographs of the sun, and having 

 seen some of those, he was sorry to say that on none 

 which he had seen were spots to be detected." As Dr. 

 Playfair is not in the habit of making statements without 

 getting up his case, we may be thankful to Mr. Smollett 

 for the sneer which called Dr. Playfair up. 



Mr. Meldrum's communication contains a very con- 

 densed reference to his memoir on Sun-spots and Rain- 

 fall recently presented by him to the Meteorological 

 Society of the Mauritius, a memoir which goes far to 

 complete one portion of that magnificent edifice, the 

 erection of which was foreseen by Sir Wm. Herschel at 

 the beginning of the present century. 



In this important paper Mr. Meldrum, than whom 

 there exists no higher authority, states that the result of 

 his seven years' work has been to convince him that the 

 connection between sun-spots and rainfall is as intimate 

 as that between sun-spots and terrestrial magnetism ; and 

 that having regard to the number of cycles at our disposal 

 we should be as justified in rejecting the diurnal oscilla- 

 tion of the barometer as the curve along the hills and 

 hollows of which the maximum and minimum rainfalls 

 of the world lie. 



This result of course will be received with incredulity 



