July 7, 1887] 



NATURE 



229 



The following year, 1878, was one of remarkably copious 

 rainfall in nearly all parts of the peninsula, with the 

 exception of the Carnatic, where the rainfall did not 

 exceed the average. In Hyderabad it was greater than 

 that of any other year since regular registers have been 

 kept ; and, on the general average of the peninsula 

 (excluding the Carnatic), it is approached only by that of 

 1874 and 1882. 



Finally, the Carnatic maximum of 1884 coincided with 

 a small excess in Hyderabad and with a larger excess in 

 the north-west of the peninsula (the Central Provinces, 

 Berar, Khandesh, the Konkan, and Guzerat) ; but this 

 was due to independent conditions. In Mysore, Bellary, 

 Malabar, the Deccan, the Northern Circars, and Orissa, 

 the rainfall of the year was more or less deficient, 

 especially in Mysore, where the fall was only three-fourths 

 of the average. 



It may, then, be considered as demonstrated that the 

 apparently periodical variation of the Carnatic rainfall is 

 by no means representative of a similar variation in that 

 of Southern India generally ; and I might here conclude 

 the discussion, were it not that the independent evidence 

 of a certain apparent regularity in the recurrence of 

 droughts and dearths seems to require a few words of 

 notice. 



At page 21 of the Report of the Indian Famine Com- 

 missioners is given a list of all the serious droughts, and 

 consequent seasons of dearth, that have affected India 

 during the last century. Selecting those that have 

 chiefly affected some part of the peninsula, we have the 

 following : — 



Droughts. Intervals. 



1782 



179I 



1802 



1806 



1812 



1823 



1832 



1844 



1853 



1865 ••• •• 



1876 



Omitting that of 1806, which divided the ordinary 

 interval into two, the mean interval is 10*36 years, and 

 the deviation from this mean in no case amounts to two 

 years. According to Wolf's table, the years of minimum 

 sunspots and their intervals were : — 



Sunspot Minima. Intervals. 



1784 



1798 



l8io 



1823 



1833 



1843 



1856 



1867 



1878 



the mean interval being in 8 years. The coincidence of 

 these mean intervals is hardly so close as might be anti- 

 cipated were there any real physical interdependence 

 between recurrent phases of the sun's condition, and the 

 recurrence of the droughts. And a comparison of the 

 dates in detail brings to light further discrepancies. Thus 

 the years of drought vary in their relations to the nearest 

 years of minimum sunspots as follows : — 



One, midway between two sunspots minima ; seven years 



distant from each ; 

 One, four years earlier ; 

 One, three years earlier ; 

 Three, two years earlier ; 

 One, one year earlier ; 

 One, coincident ; 

 One, one year later ; 

 One, two years later ; 

 One, four years later. 



9 years. 



II ,. 



4 M 



6 ,, 



11 >> 

 9 >, 



12 „ 



9 ,, 



II ,, 



II ,. 



14 years. 



12 ,, 



13 M 



10 „ 



10 „ 

 13 ., 



11 ,, 

 II .. 



Omitting the first (that of 1791), which occurred four 

 years after a year of maximum sunspots, and midway 

 between two minima, in an unusually prolonged cycle, 

 the years of drought, on a general average, anticipated 

 the sunspot minima by somewhat less than a year, instead 

 of following the minima, as might have been expected 

 on the hypothesis of the former standing to the quiescent 

 condition of the sun in the relation of effect to cause 



I should not, however, hastily conclude from these 

 facts that there is no relation between the recurrence of 

 drought in Southern India, and the periodical variation 

 of the solar photosphere ; but merely that the inter- 

 dependence of the two classes of phenomena, if real, is 

 far from being simple and direct, and also that other and, 

 as far as we know, non-periodic causes, concur largely in 

 producing drought. If we accept the conclusions, drawn 

 in the first part of this note, as to the highly probable 

 periodicity of the Carnatic rainfall, one must admit that 

 there is, in that province, a recurrent tendency to drought 

 at eleven-year intervals, though it does not always 

 culminate in drought of disastrous intensity ; and this 

 epoch anticipates by about two years that of the sunspot 

 minimum. This tendency is evidently much weaker in 

 other parts of the peninsula ; and in Northern India 

 there is some indication of a tendency to the recurrence 

 of drought about the time of maximum sunspots, as in 

 1803, 1837, 1838, and i860 — all years of disastrous 

 drought in Northern India ; and the experience of late 

 years has demonstrated that these droughts generally 

 extend to the northern provinces of the peninsula. 



Henry F. Blanford. 



NOTES. 



We print elsewhere a report of the speeches delivered by Mr. 

 Goschen and by some members of the influential deputation who 

 waited upon him last Thursday to press the claims of University 

 Colleges. The deputation had certainly no reason to complain 

 of the manner in which they were received. Mr. Goschen, 

 speaking as Chancellor of the Exchequer, was of course obliged 

 to adopt a cautious tone ; but it was plain enough that those who 

 addressed him represented a cause with which he had strong 

 personal sympathy. His promise that the Government would 

 give the matter "its most serious attention," means, we may 

 hope, that the principle of State aid for University Colleges has 

 been practically accepted. 



On Monday the foundation-stone of the Imperial Institute 

 was laid by the Queen. No representative of science, as such, 

 was invited to be present at the ceremony, and Nature did not 

 receive a Press ticket. Evidently science is to have little to do 

 with the New Institute. 



The Prussian Society for the Promotion of Industry has 

 recently offered a prize of about £,iy> for the most exhaustive 

 critical comparison of all kinds of existing bronze, tombac, and 

 brass alloys, used or recommended for machinery, giving their 

 chief properties with regard to resistance, ductility, friction at 

 different temperatures, malleability, electrical conductivity, be- 

 haviour with acids, hydrogen and carbon sulphides, chlorine, 

 and other strongly corrosive substances met with in practice. 

 The same Society also offers a gold medal and ;^25o for the best 

 work on light and heat radiation of burning gases. The time 

 limit in the former case is the end of 1887 ; in the latter, 

 the end of 1888. 



The National Association for the Promotion of Technical 

 Education has now been formed. A meeting of persons in- 

 terested in the movement was held on the ist inst. at the 

 rooms of the Society of Arts, Adelphi. Lord Hartington 

 presided, and among those present were Lord Rosebery, 

 Mr. John Morley, Sir Lyon Playfair, Sir John Lubbock, and 

 representatives from Colleges, technical schools, trade-unions, 

 School Boards, national Societies, and Chambers of Commerce. 



