SOME PHYSICAL PROBLEMS 



regular cyclic intervals of about eleven years are 

 instrumental in effecting changes in the terrestrial 

 weather. According to the paper just mentioned, it 

 would appear to be demonstrated that the periods of 

 decreased rainfall in India have a direct and relatively 

 unvarying relationship to the prevalence of the sun- 

 spots, and that, therefore, it has now become possible, 

 within reasonable limits, to predict some years in ad- 

 vance the times of famine in India. So important a 

 conclusion as this is certainly not to be passed over 

 lightly, and all the world, scientific and unscientific 

 alike, will certainly watch with acute interest for the 

 verification of this seemingly startling practical result 

 of so occult a science as solar spectroscopy. 



The theory of the decomposition of the elements is 

 closely bound up with the meteoritic theory. In a 

 word, it may be said of each .that Professor Lockyer is 

 firmly convinced that all the evidence that has accu- 

 mulated in recent years is so strongly in favor as to 

 bring these theories almost to a demonstration. The 

 essence of the meteoritic theory, it will be recalled, is 

 that all stars have their origin in nebulae which consist 

 essentially of clouds of relatively small meteorites. 

 It will be recalled further that Professor Lockyer long 

 ago pointed out that stars pass through a regular 

 series of changes as to temperature, with correspond- 

 ing changes of structure, becoming for a time hotter 

 and hotter until a maximum is reached, and then pass- 

 ing through gradual stages of cooling until their light 

 dies out altogether. Very recently Professor Lockyer 

 has been enabled, through utilization of the multiform 

 records accumulated during years of study, to define 



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