192 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
A MINISTRY OF HEALTH, AND OTHER ADDRESSES.* 
HIS highly interesting volume contains upwards of nine addresses, 
written in the author’s well-known style, and full of great and good 
thoughts. The first deals with the proposal to have a Minister of Health, and 
Dr. Richardson would make the appointment a permanent one, and it should 
be held by no party man. The next refers to William Harvey. A capital 
discourse on the inter-relationship of clerical and medical functions follows. 
In the chapter on Learning and Health there is an onslaught on needless 
competitions and the evils of the examination system. In the “ World of 
Physic,” pp. 209, 210, there is an awful but painfully true description of the 
oppositions to the aspirations and duties of the physician on the part of 
society ; and the book closes with a very curious and suggestive chapter on 
the comparative merits of alcoholic and etherial drink. The work is like all 
those of the author — that of a man of genius, of great power, of experience, 
and noble independence of thought. 
NDER the title of “ Rainfall of the World,” Mr. Archibald sends us 
a pamphlet comprising an essay, an introduction, and an appendix. 
In the introduction the author deals with solar energy, and assumes 
that this energy, being constant, is displayed at one time in the disturb- 
ance of the solar gases, as shown by the prominences and spots on the 
surface of the sun ; at another in the maintenance of a high temperature ; 
and concludes that the physical state in which the sun may be at any 
given time affects this earth by direct magnetic action, and by variations 
in the amount of heat radiated from the surface of the sun. The period 
of maximum intensity of one set of conditions is that of minimum intensity 
in the other. Years of minimum sunspot consequently show fewer magnetic 
storms, but higher temperatures, than years of maximum sunspots ; and the 
author considers that the researches of numerous meteorologists, but more 
particularly of Kdpper and Hahn, would appear to render the fact indis- 
putable that periods of sunspot minima are those of maximum temperature. 
As all meteorological phenomena are directly attributable to variations in 
temperature, through the winds which these variations occasion, the author 
in the essay divides the surface of the earth into five different zones, accord- 
ing to the winds, which are the vapour-bearing currents to each district. By 
dealing with each zone separately, according to its special local and geo- 
graphical conditions, it becomes possible to explain away many apparent 
incongruities in the rainfall of different localities. Selecting from Zone II. the 
rainfall of Madras, a direct variation with the solar spot frequency is shown, 
and it is hardly possible to avoid connecting the regular variation of drought 
and plenty with the presence or absence of large numbers of sunspots 
* By Dr. Richardson, F.R.S. London : Chatto & Windus. 1879. 
t “ The Rainfall of the World.” By E. D. Archibald. 8vo. Calcutta : 
Thacker, Spink <fc Co. 1878. 
RAINFALL AND SUNSPOTS.t 
