Epidemics. 149 



secondly, that no rays proceed from the spots, but that they 

 have a certain effect upon the magnetic, or the electro- 

 magnetic condition on the earth's surface. 



This fact strongly confirms the views of Oersted, that the 

 force called gravitation is perfectly expressed by the power 

 or force called magnetism or electro-magnetism, the same 

 as Lord Bacon suggested, as the controlling power which 

 governed the moon in her circuit round the earth. For the 

 spots on the sun, it is presumed, are masses of matter un- 

 smelted by heat, and retain their inherent cohesion amidst 

 the furnace by which they are surrounded ; or, to say the 

 least, they are free from the chemical changes to which 

 surrounding matter is subject. Hence, in such case, the 

 solid matter on the surface of the sun has a free and inde- 

 pendent action, distinct from that of the incandescent 

 surface, and in nature more akin to the solid noncandescent 

 materials towards the centre of the sun ; and, in their 

 relation to our earth and the planets, give a truer transcript 

 and interpretation of the nature of that union between the 

 matter of the sun and the planets, from their relation to 

 magnetism, than the incandescence of the matter of sun, 

 ending in the phenomena of light, heat, and chemical changes 

 on this earth, as well as in the sun itself. 



Granting that the spots on the sun give us some key, 

 from the very slightly greater nearness to the earth of solid 

 matter on the surface of the sun, to that of matter towards the centre 

 of the sun, yet if, in so delicate a medium of response to the 

 slightest degrees of variation in intensity, the magnetic con- 

 dition of the earth at certain points is affected and rendered 

 apparent by the susceptibility of delicate electro-magnetic 

 instruments, it only follows that the natural attractive power 

 of electro-magnetism between the earth and the sun is 

 slightly modified by the proportion of distance from the centre 

 io the surface of the sun; and that the earth's surface, being 



