404 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



the general concordance between the years of hurricane maxima and 

 the sun-spot period. He points out that " the seven most severe 

 winters mentioned hy Mr. Eenou since 1624, all coincide with maxima 

 of sun-spots (1624, 1665, 1707, 1748, 1789, 1830, and 1870) with 

 the exception of the winter of 1665, which coincided with the mini- 

 mum of 1666 ; but if the winter of 1677 be considered, during which 

 the Seine was frozen during thirty-five days, the nearest maximum 

 of solar-spots is that of 1675." 



A second letter appeared in the same volume of the Comptes. Eend., 

 p. 1343, "On the Eelations between the Sun-spot Period, the Hurricanes 

 of Paris and Pecamp, Tempests, and Gales in the ISTorth Atlantic." 



A third letter appears in the vol. Ixxviii. of Comptes. Pend., 1874, 

 p. 51, "On the Relations between Sunspots, tte Earthquakes of 

 the Antilles and of Mexico, and Yolcanic Eruptions of the Globe in 

 general." He states that taking the three Papers mentioned he has 

 arrived at the following conclusions : — 



1. That the phenomena of the atmosphere and of the crust of the 



earth tend generally to accumulate according to decennial 

 periods somewhere about {autour des) the maxima and 

 minima of solar spots. 



2. That of these phenomena, some show most energy about th.e 



period of the maxima, and others about the period of the 

 minima. 



3. That all the phenomena which, proceed directly or indirectly 



from heat, approximate to the minima, and those having 

 their cause in cold, approximate to the maxima oiila.e, spots. 



4. That this influence of the solar spots is reducible to a simple 



question of temperature, whence follows {decoule) by pro- 

 cess of evolution and of equivalent transformation, the 

 whole of our terrestrial phenomena. 



5. That the earthquakes occurring in the Antilles and in America 



seem to be as frequent and as intense at the periods of the 

 maxima as at the period of the minima. 



He gives a table comprehending 786 volcanic eruptions having 

 occurred in various quarters of the globe between 1749 and 1861. 

 " According to the catalogue of Mr. Kluge, it may be at once observed 

 that the maxima of eruptions correspond to the minima of solar spots, 

 and the minima to maxima of the spots." 



It follows from the details hereinbefore given that Kluge's Paper 

 ■of 1862 dealt only with the relations letween eruptions and seasons of 



