316 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



to be explained, supposing that they were all susceptible of accurate 

 measurement. 



In this particular case he had to deal with two such parallel phe- 

 nomena — the magnetism of the earth, quantitatively ascertained for 

 more than 40 years past, and " earth-currents," sadly neglected. 



He said he was perfectly aware why " earth-currents " had not 

 been measured ; and then, after mentioning the special purpose of 

 his paper (*. e. not to start a fresh theory of the earth-magnetism 

 with the scanty and imperfect material available, but to lay before 

 the Society some more facts connected with its parallel pheno- 

 menon, the earth-currents in the telegraph-lines, which had been 

 quantitatively measured during the last six years in widely dif- 

 ferent parts of the empire, Ceylon included), he proceeds as fol- 

 lows : — 



" That it was well known that from time to time telegraph-lines, 

 overland, underground, and submarine, were affected by what had 

 been called ' magnetic storms,' i. e. by very strong currents passing 

 through the wires and overpowering entirely those used for signal- 

 ling, with which electrical disturbances coexisted magnetic varia- 

 tions far exceeding the limits generally observed when no such 

 electrical disturbances exist, and very often accompanied in the 

 northern (and most likely also the southern) part of the planet by 

 vivid auroras. Now these currents observed in the telegraph-lines 

 were ' earth-currents.' 



" For instance, on the 10th of November, 1871, and on the 4th 

 of February, 1872, earth-currents of considerable strength had 

 been observed in all the lines throughout India, and the submarine 

 cables terminating on its shores. These great electrical disturb- 

 ances were by no means local, but existed almost simultaneously 

 throughout the earth, showing us a most interesting feature of 

 our planet. 



" The fact of the secular changes of the earth-magnetism occu- 

 pying such a long period as about 1000 years (the principal mag- 

 netic pole moving round the astronomical pole in 1000 years) 

 pointed most probably to a cause external to the planet. If he 

 were allowed to follow his own imagination, he would say that 

 earth-magnetism, its diurnal and secular variations, aurora? boreales 

 and australes, and electrical disturbances, weak or intense, in the 

 planet, were all due to the movement of the earth and of the heavenly 

 bodies generally — that the great electric convulsions observed from 

 time to time were nothing but the telegraph-signals transmitted 

 from far distant regions to our planet, indicating great physical 

 changes in the universe, long before, if ever, they could be felt by 

 the more rough instruments (light, heat, and gravitation) at pre- 

 sent the only means by which we recognize our kinship with the 

 outer word. 



" It could be, therefore, easily perceived how important it was 

 to investigate such a phenomenon (probably of all the most widely 

 connected) by direct measurements. 



" Now if such electrical disturbances only existed by fits and 



