SUNSPOTS AND BRITISH WEATHER. 
239 
The group of years under 1866 being that of average Sun- 
spot minimum, and that mider 1870 being that of Sunspot 
maximum, the above figures show a very distinct variation in 
accordance with the relative number of Sunspots, a difference of 
25 per cent existing between the rainfall of the series of years of 
maximum spots, and that of the series of minimum spots. While, 
however, quoting this table, which apparently shows incon- 
testable evidence of a parallelism between rainfall and Sunspots, 
it must be borne in mind that the returns are for one station 
only, and for a station which, just as in the case of Ceylon, 
must, from its geographical position, be peculiarly susceptible 
of any changes in the direct action of the Sim. In other places, 
even in India, no such marked cyclical variation is shown ; and 
it is remarkable that one of the most severe famines which has 
been experienced in Northern India, occurred in 1837-8, and 
was directly attributable to scarcity of rain, during two years 
which were those of maximum Sunspots. 
With such incongruities in India, what was to be hoped for 
in the British Isles ? Any cyclical variation, as well as our 
smaller atmospheric changes, all depend for their motive force 
on solar radiation. The force of the wind and its direction, the 
rain and the fine weather, all depend directly or indirectly on 
the amount of heat we receive from the Sun ; and when this is 
remembered, it will be imderstood how variations, which may 
even be strongly marked under the equator, are hardly notice- 
able in the north-west of Europe. In dealing with different 
zones of the Earth’s surface, however, it must be borne in mind 
that the very same causes which may occasion certain changes 
in the tropical regions may exert an influence in a directly 
opposite direction in the temperate zones, so that to look for an 
exact parallelism between the secular changes in the tropics 
and those in other parts of the Earth’s surface, is to disregard 
entirely the enormous physical differences which exist between 
those respective regions, and in fact ignore the heat of the Sun, 
the prime mover of all the variations in our atmosphere. 
Turning back to the Madras register, it is remarkable that the 
year of minimum rainfall is not the same as that of minimum 
Sunspots, but occurs one year later. If then, at Madras, it is found 
that the cycle of rainfall is one year later than that of Sunspots, 
we, in the temperate zone, might be prepared for a much 
greater discrepancy ; the experience of the tropics might 
even be reversed in England, and yet the theory of the 
advocates of the Sunspot school remain practically unshaken. 
Let it be supposed that the heat radiated from the Sun is much 
less in years of Sunspot maxima than in those of Sunspot 
minima, it is then fair to assume that the general wind over the 
surface of the Earth would be less strong, so that in consequence 
