• 111 
Ordinary Meeting, March oth, 1872. 
E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., President, in the Chair. 
“ On Changes in the Distribution of Barometric Pressure, 
Temperature, and Rainfall under different Winds during a 
Solar Spot Period, by Joseph Baxendell, F.R.A.S. 
In my paper “ On Periodic Changes in the Magnetic Con- 
dition of the Earth, and in the Distribution of Temperature 
on its Surface;” read March 8, 1864, I endeavoured to 
account for some of the phenomena therein described by 
assuming that variations in the magnetic condition of the 
earth produce corresponding variations in the direction and 
velocity of the great currents of the atmosphere ; and some 
time afterwards in considering this hypothesis more care- 
fully it appeared to me that if, as is generally supposed, 
magnetic changes are intimately connected with the dis- 
turbances which take place in the solar photosphere, their 
influence upon the atmosphere ought to be indicated by 
variations in the distribution of barometric pressure, tem- 
perature, and rainfall under different winds corresponding 
to the variations of solar spot frequency. Fortunately the 
means of at once testing the soundness of this view were at 
hand in the valuable tables numbered XVI. and XVIII. in 
the vohimes of the “ Radcliffe Observations,” which show 
for each year the relations between barometric pressure, 
temperature, and rainfall under different winds at Oxford. 
I therefore extracted from these tables, and arranged in 
order, the mean annual barometric pressures, mean tempe- 
ratures, and amounts of rainfall under different winds for 
the ten years 1858-67, and on carefully examining the table 
thus formed I found that changes had taken place in the three 
elements which corresponded very closely in the times of their 
maxima and minima with those of solar spot frequency. 
The mean length of a solar spot period is about 11 years 
and 5 weeks, and as the volume of “ Radcliffe Observations” 
for 1868 has been published since I formed the ten years 
table, I have included the mean results for that year in the 
following table, which thus represents the changes which 
took place through a complete solar spot period. 
Proceedings— Lit. & Phil, Soc.—Vol. XI.— No. 11.— Session 1871-2. 
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