the Nature of the Sun. 31 y 
in future only reckon the years of the total absence of solar 
spots, even that remarkable period of scarcity which has fallen 
under my own observation, in which nevertheless I have now 
and then seen a few spots of short duration, and of no great 
magnitude, could not be admitted. 
For this reason, we ought now to distinguish our solar obser- 
vations, by reducing them to short periods of symptoms for or 
against a copious emission of the solar beams, in which, all the 
phenomena we have pointed out should be noticed. The most 
striking of them are certainly the number, magnitude, and dura- 
tion of the openings. The increase and decrease of the lumi- 
nous appearance of the corrugations is perhaps full as essential ; 
but, as it is probable that their brilliancy may be a consequence 
of the abundance of the former phenomena, an attention to the 
latter, which is subject to great difficulties, and requires the very 
best of telescopes, may not be so necessary. 
What remains to be added is but short. In the first of my 
two series of observations, I have pointed out a deficiency in 
what appears to be the symptomatic disposition of the sun for 
emitting light and heat : it has lasted from the year 1 795 to 
1800.* That we have had a considerable deficiency in the vege- 
tation of grain, will hardly require any proof. The second series, 
or rather the commencement of it, for I hope it will last long, 
has pointed out a favourable return of the rich appearance of the 
sun. This, if I may venture to judge, will probably occasion a 
return of such seasons as, in the end, will be attended by all 
their usual fertility. 
The subject, however, being so new, it will be proper to 
• This period should properly have been divided into two small ones ; but, for want 
of intermediate solar observations, I have joined the visible deficiencies hi the illumi- 
nating and heating powers of the sun, from the year 1795 to 1796, and again from 
1798 to 1800, into one. 
