not roll and break as the solar phases transpire ; the ma- 
chinery of Nature is ever complex, — we must know the 
disturbing causes and understand the conflicting tides. For 
the present it is sufficient to know that the sun-spots raise 
the waves. Perhaps the refusal of mother Earth to nourish 
her offspring awakes the passions of mankind. Will any- 
one disprove it, — we can all ridicule,-— is famine a provocative 
to war ? War influences commerce by checking the export 
and import of grain. War and famine conspire to produce 
a commercial crisis ; there was one in 1857, and if you count 
the elevens backwards and forwards you may find more. 
The days may come — and I do not despair of seeing them 
—when the sun-spots shall not only be a subject of investi- 
gation for the curious, but when they shall photograph them- 
selves on the frontal of our social life, as of olden time the 
patches flecked the countenances of the. scientific fair. Evi- 
dently a large class of economic phenomena, the subjedt of 
recurring comment in the daily papers, are under the influ- 
ence of the sun-spots, and there is a growing tendency on 
the part of our men of Science to clinch the matter. The 
sun-spots are now supposed to affedb our globe in an imme- 
diate manner, and to constitute a telegram that is immediately 
transmitted to the forces that rule our atmosphere. Take in 
illustration Prof. Balfour Stewart’s late communication to 
“ Nature,” on what he has styled Magnetical and Meteor- 
ological Weather. As is known, the movements of the 
magnetic needle when rendered very sensitive are three — the 
secular, annual, and diurnal. The secular variation is due 
to the movement of the two points of greatest cold about 
either pole of the earth, which attract the needle, and by 
their motion draw it from east to west, and vice versa , in 
about 236 years. In its yearly and daily variations the 
needle follows the sun flower, as one would infer from being 
repelled by the heat-wave that passes with the sun over the 
earth. Thus it is farthest from due north about the spring 
equinox, and nearest that direction at the summer solstice ; 
at sunrise it progresses slowly westward, an hour or two 
after midday it turns and begins to go back, and about ten 
o’clock at night it regains its original position, remaining 
almost stationary until sunrise next morning. The daily 
movements of the needle are not only horizontal, but also 
vertical ; and these movements, horizontal and vertical, in- 
crease annually as the sun becomes leperous with spots. 
When the sun is most spotted the oscillation of the needle 
increases, and one might surmise this to be directly due to 
the influence of the spots as they hourly form and vanish. 
