482 E. HUNTINGTON SOLAR HYPOTHESIS OF CLIMATIC CHANGES 



very essence of accidents is that they should not occur regularly, and that 

 the same kind of accident should not occur throughout a large part of the 

 world again and again at the same time. Yet this is exactly what occurs, 

 as is clear from the painstaking sifting of climatic records carried on by 

 Arctowski. As I have discussed his work in "The Climatic Factoi*'' (pages 

 243 if.)? I shall here merely sum up the results there set forth. It should 

 be added, however, that since that volume was written further investiga: 

 tion has led to the conclusion that changes of solar temperature, as dis- 

 tinguished from other solar changes, may perhaps be less important than 

 at first seemed probable. The work of Arctowski is of unusual impor- 

 tance because of his extremely accurate and detailed methods, and because 

 he has branched out into certain new and suggestive lines of research. 

 One of his chief pieces of work has been a most careful analysis of varia- 

 tions of temperature apart from those due to the seasons. Aft^r elimi- 

 nating all possible effects of seasonal changes, he finds that essentially 

 the same series of slight departures from the normal mean temperature 

 is found in widely remote areas, including much of the southern and 

 oceanic part of the torrid zone and the great continental interiors of the 

 northern hemisphere. These are the parts of the world where the climate 

 is most directly under the immediate control of solar radiation. In other 

 regions, where the temperature is largely influenced by the heat carried 

 by ocean currents and winds, Arctowski's curves show that the same vari- 

 ations occur, but that they are either more or less masked and so appear 

 smaller than elsewhere, or else show a lagging which seems to be due to 

 the fact that heat is transported from other regions. Leaving these 

 doubtful cases out of account, however, we seem justified in concluding 

 that the systematic recurrence of the same variations of tem])erature in 

 cycles having a length of about two years, more or less, in regions as 

 diverse as Peru, South Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius. Java, Ceylon, New 

 York, the interior of I^ussia, and the Arctic Ocean is not in harmony 

 with any theory which appeals to purely accidental agencies pertaining to 

 the earth's own atmosphere and determined by local conditions. Such 

 variations can only occur under the impulse of some widely acting cause 

 which must be world-wide in its effect.^'" 



•" See Henryk Arctowski : A study of the chanjjcs in the distrilmtion of temperaturo 

 In Europe and North America during tlie years 1000 to 1000. Annals of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences, vol. 24. 1014. i)p. :iO-li:{. In this publication, which did noi 

 come to hand until the present paper was in print, Arctowski ^ives abundant reasons 

 for believing that some cause of extra-terrestrial origin is constantly giving rise to 

 .short-lived variations of temperature. In certain regions, such as those mentioned in 

 the text, the variations are of the Arecpiipa tyi)e. while elsewhere the peculiar con- 

 ditions of topography, winds, and currents cause them to he reversed. When a "plelon'* 

 or "antlplelon" — that Is, an area of excess or detlclency of temperature — is once formed 



