Eight-Year Cycle in Relation to Physical Cause 131 



greater strength in favor of the direct action of Venus 

 upon the atmosphere of the Earth. We shall now con- 

 sider the possibility of an indirect effect of Venus 

 through the perturbation of radiation from the Sun to 

 the Earth. 



E\Tn before the discovery of electrons and the 

 formulation of the corpuscular theory of electricity, 

 the synchronism in the variations of the magnetic 

 needle with the frequency of sunspots had caused 

 many to hold to a direct electric or magnetic action of 

 the Sun upon the Earth. But how could the action be 

 achieved at the distance of ninety-three millions of 

 miles? The mystery has not yet been cleared up, but 

 the investigations looking to its solution, as is usual 

 in such cases, have been most fruitful in other dis- 

 coveries. 



Laboratory experiments had already established 

 that the propagation of electrons is facilitated by ex- 

 treme rarification of gases; that very hot bodies give off 

 electrons ; that the electrons proceed normally from the 

 cathode; and that the position of the anode does not 

 affect the course of the cathode rays. It was therefore 

 an almost obvious step to assume that the Sun, being in- 

 tensely hot, gives off negatively charged particles that 

 are gathered in by the planets along their respective 

 magnetic lines of force. ^ 



^ As an illustration of the hypotheses to which this fructifying con- 

 ception led we have in compact form Sir Oliver Lodge's speculations: 

 "The Earth is in fact a target exposed to cathode rays, or rather to 

 electrons, emitted by a hot body, viz., the Sun. The Sun is evidently 

 intensely radio-active; and the result of its discharge of electrons into 

 the approximate vacuum of its immediate neighborhood is not unlikely 

 to be the appearance known as the corona. The gradual accumulation 

 of negative electricity by the Earth is a natural consequence of this 



