ch the iron has been
decomposed; and what is true of iron is true of various other elements
that are detected in the sun-spots. The explanation of this phenomena,
if Professor Lockyer reads the signs aright, is that during times of
minimum sun-spot activity the temperature of the sun-spots is relatively
cool, and that in times of activity the temperature becomes greatly
increased. One must come, therefore, to speaking of hot spots and cool
spots on the sun; although the cool spots, it will be understood,
would hardly be considered cool in the terrestrial sense, since their
temperature is sufficient to vaporize iron.

Now the point of the recent observations is that the fluctuations in
the sun's heat, due to the periodic increase and subsidence of sun-spot
disturbances--such fluctuations having been long recognized as having
regular cyclic intervals of about eleven years--are instrumental in
effecting changes in the terrestrial weather. According to the paper
just mentioned, it would appear to be demonstrated that the periods
of decreased rainfall in India have a direct and relatively unvarying
relationship to the prevalence of the sun-spots, and that, therefore, it
has now become possible, within reasonable limits, to predict some years
in advance the times of famine in India. So important a conclusion as
this is certainly not to be passed over lightly, and all the world,
scientific and unscientific alike, will certainly watch with acute
interest for the verification of this seemingly startling practical
result of so occult a science as solar spectroscopy.

The theory of the decomposition of the elements is closely bound up with
the meteoritic theory. In a word, it may be said of each that Professor
Lockyer is firmly convinced that all the evidence that has accumulated
in recent years is so strongly in favor as to bring these theories
almost to a demonstration. The essence of the meteoritic theory, it
will be recalled, is that all stars have their origin in nebulae which
consist essentially of clouds of relatively small meteorites. It will be
recalled further that Professor Lockyer long ago pointed out that
stars pass through a regular series of changes as to temperature, with
corresponding changes of structure, becoming for a time hotter and
hotter until a maximum is reached, and then passing through gradual
stages of cooling until their light dies out altogether. Very recently
Professor Lockyer has been enabled, thro