Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 3.djvu/496

482 he says, an unavoidable one) "that the changes, and what we now call the uncertainties of climate, are connected with the constant fluctuations which we know to he perpetually occurring in the sun itself." I may proceed, indeed, in this place, to quote the following words, in which Colonel Strange enunciates the theory itself which I am about to discuss, and its consequences: "The bearing of climatic changes on a vast array of problems connected with navigation, agriculture, and health, need but be mentioned to show the importance of seeking in the sun, where they doubtless reside, for the causes which govern these changes. It is indeed my conviction that, of all the fields now open for scientific cultivation, there is not one which, quite apart from its transcendent philosophical interest, promises results of such high utilitarian value as the exhaustive systematic study of the sun."

It cannot be doubted, I think, that, if any thing like what is here promised could be hoped for from the study of the sun, it would be a matter of more than national importance to undertake the task indicated by Colonel Strange. The expense of new observatories for this special subject of study would, in that case, be very fully repaid. It would be worth while to employ the most skilful astronomers at salaries comparable with those which are paid to our Government ministers; it would be well to secure, on corresponding terms, the advice of those most competent to decide on the instrumental requirements of the case; and, in fact, the value of the work which is at present accomplished at Greenwich, great though that value is, would sink into utter insignificance, in my judgment, compared with the results flowing in the supposed case from the proposed "exhaustive and systematic study" of the great central luminary of the planetary system.

The subject we are to discuss is manifestly, therefore, of the utmost importance, and cannot be too carefully dealt with. It would be a misfortune on the one hand to be led by careless reasoning to underestimate the chances in favor of the proposed scheme, while, on the other, it would be most mischievous to entertain unfounded expectations where the necessary experiments must be of a costly nature, and where science would be grievously discredited, should it be proved that the whole scheme was illusory.

We note, first, that, besides being "the great dominating force" to which all natural phenomena connected with climate are due, the sun has special influence on all the most noteworthy variations of weather. The seasons are due to solar influence; and here we have an instance of a power of prediction derived from solar study, though belonging to a date so remote that we are apt to forget the fact. It seems so obvious that summer will be on the whole warmer than winter, that we overlook the circumstance that, at some epoch or other, this fact, at least in its relation to the apparent motions of the sun, must have been recognized as a discovery. Men must at one time have learned, or perhaps we should rather say each race of men must at one time