386 Magnetic Influence of Solar Light. 



abandoned. Nor is the settlement of this singularly fated 

 question, a matter purely of speculative interest, since it has 

 been intimately interwoven with the theories of terrestrial 

 magnetism and temperature, whose many important practical 

 applications renders it of moment that no erroneous assump- 

 tions should be connected with them. M. Kupffer, the 

 distinguished Russian traveller, in an able and interesting 

 essay on the distribution of temperature throughout the 

 world, makes the magnetic influence of solar light a funda- 

 mental portion of the hypothesis he adopts, and views the 

 earth, not as is generally done, as having an independent 

 magnetism, but as a mass highly susceptible of magnetism, 

 and rendered magnetic by the influence of a distant celestial 

 body. He displays much ingenuity in reconciling his ob- 

 servations on the arrangement of Iso-geothermal lines with 

 this view, but his labours of course, now become useless, when 

 it is shewn that the foundation of his theory is unsound, 

 and that the magnetic influence of the sun's rays, on which 

 he rests so much, has no real existence as a power in nature. 



Camp, 20th May, 1842. 



On the Manufacture of Bar Iron in Southern India. By 

 Captain J. Campbell, Assistant Surveyor General, Ma- 

 dras Establishment. 



1. In the commerce between India and England, a source 

 of deep injury to the former country arises from England 

 having deprived her of the trade in cotton cloth, the 

 manufacture of which was, but a few years ago, one of 

 the most valuable and extensive of Indian products ; while 

 from no other having been as yet introduced as an export 

 to balance the imports from England, it has become neces- 

 sary to drain India of her specie to pay the expences of the 

 Government, and for the articles she requires from the 



