107 
Ordinary Meeting, February 24th, 1880. 
J. P. JoDLE, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., &c., President, in the 
Chair. 
Mr. R. S. Dale and Mr. S. C. Trapp were appointed 
Auditors of the Treasurer’s Accounts. 
Dr. R. Angus Smith, F.R.S., exhibited a diamond he had 
received from Mr. Hannay. 
“ On the Long Period Inequality in Rainfall,” by Bal- 
POUR Stewart, LL.D., F.R.S., Professor of Natural Philo- 
sophy at the Owens College, Manchester. 
1. If it be true that there is a variation in the power of 
the sun depending on the state of his surface, this variation 
might naturally be expected to make itself apparent 
through a corresponding change in the rainfall of the earth, 
so that when the sun is most powerful there ought to be’ 
the greatest rainfall. 
2. While the connexion indicated above is that which 
most readily occurs to the mind, yet the difficulty of 
ascertaining the facts of the case in a manner bearing the 
smallest approach to completeness is so great as to be at 
present insuperable. 
There is first of all an intense reference to locality in 
rainfall, so that the rainfall at one place may differ greatly 
from that at another place in its near neighbourhood 
Again there are probably, in addition to possible secular 
inequalities, very great oscillations in the yearly rainfall at 
any one place, or accidental variations, as we may term 
them in our ignorance of their cause. 
Pbooeeditos-Iix.&Phii,. Soc.-Toe. XIX.-No. IO.-Session 1879-80. 
