228 
MAJOR-GENERAL SABINE ON THE DISTURBANCES OE THE 
character. In order to bring to the test of positive evidence the question whether these 
intermediate fluctuations were also general, or were of merely local origin, five-minutely 
observations were now appointed at all the stations ; and the result of four such term- 
days, in May, June, August, and September 1834, was to establish conclusively, that 
almost all the numerous and apparently irregular movements observed at Gottingen 
occurred also at the other places ; and although with varied relative magnitudes, yet 
with an agreement which did not admit of mistake. The Gottingen Association now 
took the lead in the inquiry, the number of terms in the year being fixed at six, each of 
twenty-four hours’ duration, with intervals of five minutes between the observations. 
The number of associated stations appears to have been about twenty, distributed gene- 
rally over the continent of Europe. Besides the increased frequency of the observations, 
improvements were introduced in the apparatus used in the observations of the declina- 
tion ; and the bifilar magnetometer, devised by M. Gauss for a corresponding record of 
the variations in the intensity of the horizontal component of the magnetic force, was 
employed at a few stations where the activity was greatest. The Gottingen Association 
continued its terms with regularity until 1841, stimulated by the great advantage which 
it possessed in the discussion of the results from time to time by MM. Gauss and Webek 
in the well-known publication entitled “ Besultate aus der Beobachtungen des magne- 
tischen Vereins.” The conclusions already noticed as having been obtained in 1834 
were confirmed by the careful examination and discussion to which the observations of 
each recurring term-day were subjected. The disturbing action was found to be 
frequently so considerable in amount, that partial and even total obliteration of the 
regular diurnal movements was a very common occurrence ; and to be of such general 
prevalence, not only in the larger but also in most of the smaller oscillations, over the 
greater part of Europe, as to cause it to be viewed as in a very high degree improbable 
that the disturbances could have either a local or an atmospherical origin. No con- 
nexion or correspondence whatsoever was discoverable between the indications of the 
magnetical and meteorological instruments ; nor had the state of the weather any per- 
ceptible influence. It happened very frequently that either an extremely quiescent 
state of the needle or a very regular and uniform progress was preserved during the 
prevalence of the most violent atmospherical storm ; and as with wind-storms, so with 
thunder-storms, even when close at hand they exercised no perceptible influence on the 
magnetic instruments *. 
* As a magnetical question, the supposition of an atmospherical origin of the disturbances may be considered 
to have been disposed of by the conclusions of the Gottingen Association. There remained, however, a problem 
which might be interesting to meteorologists. It was possible to suppose that, although the magnetic disturbances 
did not originate in the atmosphere, their presence, or possibly that of their producing cause, might occasion some 
atmospherical condition (which might be indicated either by the meteorological instruments or by some peculiar 
state of the weather), affecting simultaneously all parts of the globe on the particular days when the magnetic 
instruments were disturbed. The simultaneous observations of both classes of phenomena at the widely distri- 
buted stations of the British Colonial Observatories were well calculated to bring into view any such general 
atmospheric condition or affection if it existed ; but the most careful collation of the simultaneous records of 
many years has failed to reveal any such correspondence. 
