SUN-SPOT, STORM, AND FAMINE. 43 



able pamphlet is not diminished in any way, " an indirect 

 effect of which has been to stimulate meteorological inquiry 

 and research in the same direction throughout India. The 

 meteorology of this country (India), from its peculiar and 

 tropical position, is in such complete unison with any 

 changes that may arise from oscillations in the amount of 

 solar radiation, and their effects upon the velocity and direc- 

 tion of the vapour-bearing winds, that a careful study of 

 it cannot fail to discover meteorological periodicities in close 

 connection with corresponding periods of solar disturbance." 

 So, indeed, it would seem. 



The hope that famines may be abated, or, at least, some 

 of their most grievous consequences forestalled by means of 

 solar observatories, does not appear very clearly made out 

 Rather it would seem that the proper thing to do is to 

 investigate the meteorological records of different Indian 

 regions, and consider the resulting evidence of cyclic 

 changes without any special reference to sun-spots ; for if 

 sun-spots may cause drought in one place, heavy rainfall in 

 another, winds here and calms there, it seems conceivable 

 that the effects of sun-spots may differ at different times, as 

 they manifestly do in different places. 



Let us turn, however, from famines to shipwrecks. Per- 

 haps, if we admit that cyclones are more numerous, and 

 blow more fiercely, and range more widely, even though it 

 be over one large oceanic region only, in the sun-spot 

 seasons than at other times, we may be assured, without 

 further research, that shipwrecks will, on the whole, be more 

 numerous near the time of sun-spot maxima than near the 

 time of sun-spot minima. 



The idea that this may be so was vaguely shadowed 

 forth in a poern of many stanzas, called " The Meteorology 

 of the Future : a Vision," which appeared in Nature for 

 July 5, 1877. I do not profess to understand precisely 

 what the object of this poem may have been I mean, 

 whether it is intended to support or not the theory that 

 sun-spots influence the weather. Several stanzas are very 



