xviii President's Address 



group of spots occurred. At Greenwich, out of 150 photo- 

 graphs, 29 show sun spots. As is usual during these periods, 

 magnetic storms and auroras have been much less frequent. 

 Within this period, also, we have had dreadful famines in 

 India and China, serious droughts in Australia and other 

 parts of the world ; and, to crown all, a cloud of commercial 

 depression and disasters appears to have fallen on the earth, 

 darkest where commerce usually flourishes most. An occa- 

 sion has thus been afforded for reopening the question of a 

 connection between the solar and terrestrial conditions, and 

 there has been a considerable amount of discussion and con- 

 troversy upon the subject. Investigations of the rainfall 

 statistics in India and elsewhere, where records over a long 

 series of years are available, have been diligently made to 

 compare with the now well-known sun-spot period, and 

 while weighty evidence has been adduced from some regions 

 in favour of one side of the question, the other regions fur- 

 nished it in favour of the other side. It is generally con- 

 ceded, however, that the earth's magnetic condition is much 

 more disturbed, and that auroras, cyclones, and storms in 

 some regions are also more prevalent during the period of 

 sun-spot frequency than during the minimum period. It is 

 also suspected, and almost admitted, that the influence 

 exerted by the sun on these terrestrial conditions is intensi- 

 fied by certain planetary positions, while the late disastrous 

 seasons in many parts of the world present one instance at 

 least of a coincidence between a minimum sun-spot period 

 and droughts and commercial crises. Observant financiers 

 and commercial men have often remarked that a " wave" 

 can be traced in the " money market," whose period is from 

 10 to 11 years, and this has given colour to the proposition 

 of the coincidence of no sun-spots with commercial declines, 

 against which Mr. Proctor declaims so vigorously. 'Few 

 who know anything of physical science will venture to deny 

 the possibility of the connection ; there are many, however, 

 and I rank myself among the number, who maintain that 

 sun-spots and prosperity, although they may sometimes 



