NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 131 



by a happy coincidence, had also his telescope directed to the great 

 luminary at the same instant. It may be, therefore, that these two 

 gentlemen have actually witnessed the process of feeding the sun, by 

 the fall of meteoric matter ; but however this may be, it is a remark- 

 able circumstance, that the observations at Kew show that on the 

 very day, and at the very hour and minute of this unexpected and. 

 curious phenomenon, a moderate but marked magnetic disturbance 

 took place ; and a storm or great disturbance of the magnetic ele- 

 ments occurred four hours after midnight, extending to the southern 

 hemisphere. Thus is exhibited a seeming connexion between mag- 

 netic phenomena and certain actions taking place on the sun's disc — 

 a connexion, which the observations of Schwabe, compared with the 

 magnetical records of our Colonial Observatories, had already ren- 

 dered nearly certain. The remarkable results derived from the 

 comparison of the magnetical observations of Captain Maguire on 

 the shores of the Polar Sea, with the contemporaneous records of 

 these Observatories, have been described on a former occasion. 

 The delay of the Government in re-establishing the Colonial Obser- 

 vatories has hitherto retarded that further development of the mag- 

 netic laws, which would doubtless have resulted from the prosecution 

 of such researches. — Lord Wrottesley 's Address to the British Asso- 

 ciation. 



PHYSICAL CONSTITUTION OF THE SUN. 



The Rev. Professor Walker 1 , at the late meeting of the British 

 Association at Oxford, delivered a " Discourse on the Physical Con- 

 stitution of the Sun" to a numerous audience in the Theatre of the 

 University. The topics embraced the sun's spots, its heat, light, 

 and magnetism. Upon each of these the rev. Professor successively 

 enlarged, and laid before his audience a copious account of the 

 present state of our. knowledge of the great central body of our 

 system. The learned Professor also noticed many theories regarding 

 this branch of study which have been given to the world, and replied 

 to such as he dissented from in an able and lucid manner. In his 

 concluding remarks he said we had yet much to learn, perhaps more 

 than would begiven to man to learn in this state of his existence, 

 concerning the great luminary of our world. We were as yet 

 ignorant of the way in which its perpetual fountains of heat and 

 light were so continuously supplied, of the effects which those streams 

 were producing as they quivered in the apparently barren fields 

 through which the bodies of our system described their circuits, or in, 

 the wider regions of space. We were ignorant of these and of many 

 other unceasing operations ; but as we exercised our faculties upon 

 them, this truth seemed to come out more and more strongly that 

 the Creator had made nothing in vain. At the conclusion of the 

 lecture a vote of thanks, moved by the Bishop of Oxford, and seconded 

 by Professor Lloyd, of Dublin, was awarded to Professor Walker for 

 his valuable paper. (This very interesting discourse has been pub- 

 lished in cxtenso.) ^___^ 



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