The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-05-27

our country can set forth. The prospects OF
the Jockey Club were never brighter than at
present, and it will be- no doubt, the earnest
wish Of all that bright skies and radiant sun
shine will greet their opening day.
Tho Cycles OF Cholera and Sum Spots.
One of the most remarkable deductions of
modern science has recently been made in
England, in regard to the long-supposed con-
neotion between the cholera and sun spots.
The intense interest now felt everywhere as to
the origin, movements and present march Of
the great Asiatic plague invests the subject with
more than ordinary importance. The phe-
nomenon of solar spots has long since been
connected with the wonderful auroral displays,
magnetic storms and other physical changes
which so often bewilder and amaze the most
eminent philosophers of the day. On the LIST
Of September, 1859, the face of the sun was
obscured by such spots, and two observers,
far separated and unknown to each other,
while viewing them with powerful telescopes,
simultaneously saw strikingly dazzling light
burst forth near one Of the spots and sweep
across it, traversing in q few minutes thirty
five thousand miles Of the solar surface. A
magnetic storm at the same time was in violent
progress. The whole planet seemed electri-
cally conyulsed on that day; and gradually
kilograms ANNOUNCED magnificent auroras in
Europe. in the West Indies, on the
tropics, within eighteen degrees Of the Equa-
tor (where they are very rare), in South Amer
A. :,, T.,
many places the telegraph wires ceased work,
and at some Of our chief cities the electricians
received severe shocks. The magnitude Of
solar spots, which astronomers believe to stand
causally connected with such commissions, is
almost incredible. Instances are frequent of
spots covering eight hundred millions of square
miles on the SUMS disc; and there are excep-
tonal ones, as that seen by Herschel in 1887,
more than thirty times as large. It is, there
fore, not to be wondered at, as the distin-
guished authority whom we have just quoted
suggested, that the spotted state Of the grand
luminary is intimately connected with great
variety Of meteorologic, terrestrial and other
phenomena.
The new and striking deduction to which
we referred at the outset emanates from Mr..
B. G. Jenkins, of the Inner Temple, London,
in paper (read before the Historical Society
on cholera, founded on communication to
the Russian Imperial Academy Of Sciences,
and now under review by the Medical Council.
The author of the paper emphatically main
tains and strongly supports the view that
cosmic influence lies at the origin of cholera,
and that the great epidemic is intimately con-
nected with auroral displays and solar disturb
ances, and graphically illustrated the con-
nection upon map giving the amount Of
cholera and the number Of sun spots for the
past fifty years. Following out this idea, he
proves, by the annals of the disease, that its
maxima and minima coincide with the maxima
and minima of solar agitauons, auroras,
banners, earth currents magnetic storms and
great electrical cyclones. 1t is well known
and curious fact that the last year Of every GEN.
tury-e. g., 1800-has minimum Of spots, and,
by various processes different physicists in
distant countries, working from Photographic
and other sun records have reached the same
result, that the period Of time in which this
minimum returns is about eleven years and
half. But the maximum year falls about five
years after the minimum, and not midway in
the period. The author of the hypothesis con-
cludes that the cholera period is about equal to
a period and half Of sun spots; and thus
reckoning, his deduction is verified as far as
cholera statistics are known. According to
this reasoning 1866 was q year having maxi
mum of the disease, and the next maximum
will be in 1881 conclusion which will be
welcomed by those who have apprehended its
visitation in its worst forms this year in our
own country.
Contrary to the usual notion Mr. Jenkins
projects the idea that the shome" of cholera
is not confined to Asia or the delta of the
Ganges, and that it originates in seven distinct
and equi-distant seats, on or near the tropics of
which the Gangetic is the most important.
The others are to the east Of China, to the
north of Mecca, on the west coast of Africa, to
the north Of the West Indies, to the west Of
Lower California and among the Sandwich
Islands and his map shows that the recorded
appearances of the epidemic on our globe may
be satisfactorily explained by supposing seven
atmospheric streams each fourteen hundred
miles in breadth, proceeding from these foci
in northwesterly direction. The curious
but not infrequent cases of vessels being sud
denly struck by cholera while at sea and the
instances of ships sailing along the coasts Of
India being attacked by the disease in the
same place, at different times, seem to be
explicable only upon the supposition that they
were sailing in these cholera streams. At any
rate it is pretty clear that the places hitherto
exempt from the infection lie outside the
limits of such streams as Mr.. Jenkins de-
scribed. The whole subject is worthy tho