rld has been startled by
the discovery of new elements, such as radium, whose very existence was
only detected by a triumph of scientific acuteness in investigation, and
yet which promise to yield influences on our lives which may overwhelm in
importance all that has gone before. And similarly it may be that these
magnetic changes, when properly interpreted or developed, may become of an
importance in the future out of all proportion to the attention which they
have hitherto attracted. Hence, although perhaps sufficient has already
been established to show the immense consequences which flow from
Schwabe's remarkable discovery of the periodicity in solar spots, we may
be as yet only on the threshold of its real value.

From what little causes great events spring! How little can Schwabe have
realised, when he began to point his modest little telescope at the sun,
and to count the number of spots--the despised spots which he had been
assured were of no interest and exhibited no laws, and were generally
unprofitable--that he was taking the first step in the invention of the
great science of Solar Physics!--a science which is, I am glad to say,
occupying at the present moment so much of the attention, not only of the
great Yerkes Observatory, but of many other observatories scattered over
the globe.

CHAPTER VI

THE VARIATION OF LATITUDE

If we should desire to classify discoveries in order of merit, we must
undoubtedly give a high place to those which are made under direct
discouragements. In the last chapter we saw that Schwabe entered upon his
work under conditions of this kind, it being the opinion of experienced
astronomers who had looked at the facts that there was nothing of interest
to be got by watching sun-spots. In the present chapter I propose to deal
with a discovery made in the very teeth of the unanimous opinion of the
astronomical world by an American amateur, Mr. S. C. Chandler of Cambridge
(Massachusetts). It is my purpose to allow him to himself explain the
steps of this discovery by giving extracts from the magnificent series of
papers which he contributed to the _Astronomical Journal_ on the subject
in the years 1891-94, but it may help in the understanding of these
extracts if I give a brief summary of the facts. And I will first explain
what is meant by the "Variation of Latitude."

[Sidenote: Latitude.]

[Sidenote: Precession.]

We are all familiar with the existence of a certain star