372 COSMOS. 



angularly broken, and characterized by entering angles, 

 are frequently surrounded by halos or penumbra?, which 

 exhibit the same figure on a larger scale. There is no 

 appearance of a transition of the colour of the spot into 

 the penumbra, or of the latter, which is sometimes filament 

 tous, into that of the photosphere. Capoeci and Pastorff (of 

 Buchholz in Brandenburg) most diligent observers have 

 both given very accurate representations of the angular form 

 of the nuclei. (Schum. Astr. Nachr. No. 115, p. 316; No. 133, 

 p. 291; No. 144, p. 471.) William Herschel and Schwabe 

 saw the nucleoid spots divided by bright veins, or luminous 

 bridges, phenomena of a cloud-like nature generated within 

 the second stratum where the penumbra? originate. These 

 singular configurations, which probably owe their origin to 

 ascending currents, the tumultuous formation of spots, solar 

 facula?, furrows, and projecting stripes (crests of luminous 

 waves) indicate, according to Sir William Herschel, an intense 

 evolution of light; whilst, on the other hand, according to 

 the same great authority, " the absence of solar spots and 

 their concomitant phenomena seems to indicate a low 

 degree of combustion, and, consequently, a less beneficial 

 action on the temperature of our planet, and the development 

 of vegetation." These conjectures led Sir William Herschel 

 to institute a series of comparisons between the prices of 

 corn, and the complaints of poor crops, 14 and the absence of 

 solar spots, between the years 1676 and 1684 (according to 

 Flamstead), from 1686 to 1688 (according to Dominique 

 Cassini), from 1695 to 1700, and from 1795 to 1800. Unfor- 

 tunately, however, we can never attain a knowledge of the 

 numerical elements on which to found even a conjectural 

 solution of such a problem; not only, as this circumspect 



14 William Herschel, in the Philosophical Transactions of 

 the Royal Society for 1801, part ii. pp- 310-316. 



